Rattus fuscipes

Bush Rat at Charleys Forest, NSW

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Rattus fuscipes DonFletcher 24 May 2025
Rattus rattus CarbonAI 23 May 2025
Unverified arjay 23 May 2025

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8 comments

   23 May 2025
Hi arjay, thanks for your sighting. The media you provided is missing. To help us verify this sighting, please provide additional media.
   23 May 2025
Yeah put it down to rain or something. For some reason images sometimes don't load. Even although it is the first thing that you actually do to report a sighting.
   24 May 2025
Hi arjay, are you able to upload a photo of the sole of the hind foot, the other side with the intact ear and a better view of the scales on the tail. What is the surrounding habitat like?
   24 May 2025
These are the only two photos I have and they were taken in 2014 so the animal itself is long gone. I have loaded an magnified image of tail. Sorry no images of the other ear or hind foot. Will keep it in mind for next time. I had assumed it was R. fuscipes. It is not R. rattus. Tail too short although it looks like it has been trimmed a bit at some stage. Ears too small. Surrounding habitat is difficult. It varies a lot. Probably mostly dry sclerophyll forest that is extremely wet at the moment. Old cleared areas are reverting to forest via ti tree, Bursaria and wattles. Very slowly.
   24 May 2025
Hi arjay, I agree with fuscipes but we see so few these days, compared to hundreds of R rattus, that I wanted more certainty. Verified as fuscipes.
   24 May 2025
We very rarely see black rats or for that matter house mice. Instead we have bush rats and antechinus both of which are much nicer animals.
   24 May 2025
Do you know which Antechinus?
   24 May 2025
We have two. A agilis and A stuartii.

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Location information

Sighting information

  • At least 1 Abundance
  • arjay Recorded by

Collections

Species information

  • Rattus fuscipes Scientific name
  • Bush Rat Common name
  • Not Sensitive
  • Local native
  • Non-invasive or negligible
  • Up to 1585.55m Recorded at altitude

Record quality

Quality score 3 / 7
  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
  • GPS evidence of location
  • Description
  • Additional attributes
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