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Identification history
| Potorous tridactylus | 2 Oct 2018 | LocalFlowers | ||
| Unidentified | 1 Oct 2018 | LocalFlowers |
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User's notes
David's shot of an animal and its burrow. There are three burrows the same size, the last photo is a day shot of the burrow, the burrow looks like coagulated lumps of soil like gravel, and the burrow is about 1.5m radius oval type size, with a hole in the middle of it. The animal had a long tale.
9 comments
MaxCampbell
wrote:
2 Oct 2018
Hi liz - I think, on general configuration, that it's a mouse or rat. I can't see the powerful hind legs, tail and more upright stance of a potoroo. Based on what I can see of ear and head shape and length of tail and it's burrowing habit in bushland, I'd guess it's most likely Rattus fuscipes; (Just a guess though)
LocalFlowers
wrote:
2 Oct 2018
Thanks Max I appreciate that, thanks! - we thought it was too big for a rat, one person suggested it was a Poteroo but we thought that was unlikely. Did you get to see the habitat mound by chance - we had the thought that possibly the kind of burrow it has built might be a clue perhaps - this one is over near the rain forest section.
JackieMiles
wrote:
3 Oct 2018
I reckon Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus) is a good possibility too. The short face and fairly short tail suggest that, plus they do tend to make burrows with huge mounds of soil at the entrance like the last photo. However, in my experience they are always close to water. If it was close to the lake shore I'd say definitely that species, but the map suggests it wasn't.
LocalFlowers
wrote:
3 Oct 2018
THanks Jackie! How close to the water? This is reasonably close, as in, up the hill, but still a lot closer to the water than the other sections of the compartment - the description of the burrows you made fits with what we can see in the photo and Davd's description of what he saw
JackieMiles
wrote:
3 Oct 2018
As far as I can remember I've only seen their burrows within say 20 metres of water. But assuming the burrow and the animal in the photo are connected by more than circumstantial evidence, and given the lake in the general vicinity, I reckon we'd be fairly safe to call it that. I'll suggest it for a start and see if anyone else weighs in.
LocalFlowers
wrote:
3 Oct 2018
OK thanks - its more than 20m, and it is definitely working the burrow, we can see that in the images, though some loss of quality may make that hard to see after upload.
LocalFlowers
wrote:
3 Oct 2018
Im just still feeling its too big on reading the species notes..........
JackieMiles
wrote:
5 Oct 2018
I'm away from home without access to books at the moment, but off the top of my head, if it's living in a burrow it pretty much has to be a rat. Neither potoroos or bandicoots burrow, just shelter under dense veg I'm pretty sure. Maybe it is just a big old animal, outside the normal size range, but you might just be misjudging it too. I can't see much in the background to give any clues about scale.
LocalFlowers
wrote:
5 Oct 2018
ok thanks - I think we could just tell the size by looking at other things that were photographed - we got some lyrebird footage, a wallaby and some wonga pigeons in the same shoot - I guess thats what we are using as a size reference - but yeah it was definitely hanging out at three burrows - great info as always Jackie thanks a million !
Sighting information
- 1 - 3 Abundance
- 30 Sep 2018 09:39 AM Recorded on
- LocalFlowers Recorded by
