Bush Rat

About the Bush Rat

The bush rat or Australian bush rat (Rattus fuscipes) is a small Australian nocturnal animal. It is an omnivore and one of the most common indigenous species of rat on the continent, found in many heathland areas of Victoria and New South Wales.

The description of the species by G. R. Waterhouse was published in the second part of the series Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, edited by Charles Darwin. The species was assigned to the genus Mus, a once broader classification, and later placed with the genus Rattus. The collection of the type specimen was made when HMS Beagle was anchored at King George Sound, a port at the southwest of the continent. The capture was noted by Darwin as "caught in a trap baited with cheese, amongst the bushes...". The type locality has been determined as Little Grove, Western Australia, six kilometres (3.7 mi) south of Mount Melville in the city of Albany. The population is regarded as the fuscipes species group, as the species has received various treatments of subspecies.

Four subspecies are recognised, each occurring in different regions or habitat, these are R. f. assimilis, common in the coastal region of the south and east of... Wikipedia →