Saving the smoky mouse

This endangered native mammal is crucial for forest health.

IT’S NOT SURPRISING that Austra lia’s rodents receive less attention than many of our better-known marsupial mammals. For most of us, native rats and mice are often hard to distinguish from introduced pests. And yet Australia’s native rodents are unique and face the same threats as our marsupials. Take the critically endangered smoky mouse, for example.

This forest dweller is about the size of a small rat but can be differentiated by its bluish-grey coloured fur. It has an omnivorous diet, feeding on seeds, fruit, flowers and truffle-like fungi, as well as invertebrates such as the Bogong moth.

The smoky mouse is an industrious little ball of fur that plays an important role in keeping forests healthy by aerating soil, increasing water penetration and spreading truffle spores in its droppings. These truffles that the smoky mouse helps to spread form a symbiotic relationship with the roots of surrounding plants, helping them to take in water and nutrients.

Once widespread throughout Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, the smoky mouse is disappearing at an alarming rate. Causes include habitat loss, predation by foxes and cats and altered fire regimes. Many of the native plants on which the smoky mouse relies are also falling prey to ‘cinnamon fungus’ ( Phytophthora cinnamomi). This deadly introduced pathogen causes a condition in plants called ‘root rot’ or ‘dieback’, which has damaged forests and destroyed the habitat of many of our native animals.

But there’s some good news for the smoky mouse. The Saving our Species (SoS) program, which aims to secure threatened populations of plants and animals across NSW, is working to save the rodent from extinction. It has been classified as a site-managed species, which means that its remaining populations are being carefully monitored for conservation at specific sites around NSW. There are currently three of these working to save the smoky mouse from extinction – the Priam Breeding Facility, one next to South East Forest National Park and one in Nullica State Forest. At the Priam facility the mice are encouraged to breed by growing native flowers in their enclosures and providing a ready supply of seeds and fruits for them to eat.

In an effort to target the threats facing the smoky mouse, SoS has also organised activities that will assist the species.

These include: control programs for foxes, wild dogs, rabbits and feral cats establishment of responsible fire regimes to maintain floristic and structural diversity in smoky mouse habitat controlling cinnamon fungus infection by avoiding transfer of soil into areas of smoky mouse habitat conducting searches for the species in proposed logging areas. HOLLY CORMACK

For more about the smoky mouse and to assist in securing its survival by making a donation or reporting a sighting, visit the website below.