Editorial Reviews. Review. "There are about 60 living species of mice and rats in Australia and New Zealand, representing the most ecologically diverse.
Table of contents
- Top Authors
- List of rodents of Australia
- Native mice and rats: Australian natural history series - Rodent management
Top Authors
N ative M ice and R ats. This book belongs on the shelf of everyone with a serious interest in mammals and in all institutional research libraries, because it brings current nearly all that is known about Australia's native rodents, following The Rodents of Australia by Watts and Aslin This book will be particularly useful for those planning to conduct field or laboratory research on Australia's rodents, whether they are Australians or visiting researchers, and at all levels of scholarly achievement from advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students to postdoctoral and more-senior researchers.
Throughout, the authors stress the great diversity of this rodent fauna, comprising about 60 extant species and 2 major subgroups of the family Muridae: I 1st visited Australia in with the former notion in mind, but soon became aware of this diversity through the tutelage of Basil Marlow, Peter Aitken, Jack Mahoney, and David Ride, all prominent Australian mammalogists and rodent scholars.
The book is organized around traditional lines, with chapters on diversity, distribution, origins and evolution, reproduction, diet and gastrointestinal tract, populations and communities, social organization and behavior, parasites and disease by Andrew Breed , and conservation; unfortunately my bias! It is richly illustrated, with informative line drawings by Alice MacDougal, excellent drawings of representative rodents by Ella Fry courtesy of Gomboc Gallery , color photographs of 26 extant species by several colleagues of the authors, and a photocopy of John Gould's lithograph of the delicate mouse, Pseudomys delicatulus Gould , giving well-deserved credit to Gould's chief collector and naturalist, John Gilbert.
All chapters and illustrations reflect the very substantial diversity of these rodents of Asian ancestry, particularly in light of their relatively brief occupation of this continent of ancient Gondwanan origin.
In particular, representatives of the old endemics probable arrival in early Pliocene inhabit virtually every undisturbed habitat on the continent, including semiarid and arid zones of the interior, but the more recently arrived new endemic Rattus spp. Although the authors indicate that the most speciose genera of the old endemics Pseudomys and Notomys have had the most success in inhabiting harsh deserts, it is disheartening to note that species of these genera also have experienced the greatest number of extinctions since arrival of Europeans.
By necessity the book is more descriptive than analytical, because many key analytical studies have yet to be conducted. For example, the old endemic rodents invaded Australia relatively a short time ago, and rapidly diversified in the presence of a firmly established and diverse Gondwanan fauna. Yet to be explained are the underlying selective pressures driving this diversification: Although such an explanation is by its nature speculative, it is an essential ingredient in furthering the understanding of these endemics, and, perhaps, in enhancing their futures.
But, because of the precarious states of many populations of especially the old endemic rodents, the highest priority of attention 1st must be directed toward conservation and preservation of existing species, in hopes of reversing further declines. After their arrivals and diversification both old and new endemics apparently thrived during occupation by Aboriginals starting approximately 40, years ago, and even after introduction of dingoes about 5, years ago, only to be progressively threatened with extirpation following arrival and geographic expansion of Europeans, their livestock, and exotic vermin especially foxes, cats, and rabbits— Low , starting about years ago.
- List of rodents of Australia - Wikipedia.
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The authors review current status of all known native rodent species, including those now considered extinct. They conclude that further extinctions may be minimized by implementing recovery and management plans on conservation reserves that emphasize existing environmental conditions, acknowledging many anthropogenic factors that, in combination, may have influenced native rodent demise.
Further, they imply that such plans should be multispecies approaches where threatened sympatric rodent species still exist.
List of rodents of Australia
They range in size and form from the very small delicate mice to the highly specialised, arid-adapted hopping mice, large tree rats and carnivorous water rats. Native Mice and Rats describes the evolution and ecology of this much-neglected group of animals. It details the diversity of their reproductive biology, their dietary adaptations and social behaviour. The book also includes information on rodent parasites and diseases, and concludes by outlining the changes in distribution of the various species since the arrival of Europeans as well as current conservation programs.
He has focused his research on the reproductive biology of Australian native mammals, in particular native rodents and dasyurid marsupials. Recently he has extended his studies to include rodents of Asia and Africa.
Native mice and rats: Australian natural history series - Rodent management
He has focused his research on. Fred Ford has trapped and studied native rats and mice across much of northern Australia and south-eastern New South Wales. Join Our Discussion Rodent updates around the globe. The project is about rodent pests and the damage they cause in crop production, the loss and contamination of stored food after harvest and the many health problems inflicted on people and domestic animals through the transmission of rodent-borne diseases. Council for Partnership on Rice Research in Asia.
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