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    The white-footed rabbit-rat was a kitten-sized, extinct rodent that was originally found in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, Australia. It was nocturnal and made nests of leaves in hollow trees. The last confirmed sighting was in 1845, though some possible sightings occurred in the 1850s-1860s. Predation by cats, disease transmission from rats, loss of woodland habitat due to a change in Aboriginal land management practices, and competition for food from rats may all have contributed to its extinction.

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    White-footed rabbit-rat

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    The white-footed rabbit-rat was a kitten-sized, extinct rodent that was originally found in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, Australia. It was nocturnal and made nests of leaves in hollow trees. The last confirmed sighting was in 1845, though some possible sightings occurred in the 1850s-1860s. Predation by cats, disease transmission from rats, loss of woodland habitat due to a change in Aboriginal land management practices, and competition for food from rats may all have contributed to its extinction.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    11 views2 pages

    White-Footed Rabbit-Rat

    Uploaded by

    vasco.pyjama88
    The white-footed rabbit-rat was a kitten-sized, extinct rodent that was originally found in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, Australia. It was nocturnal and made nests of leaves in hollow trees. The last confirmed sighting was in 1845, though some possible sightings occurred in the 1850s-1860s. Predation by cats, disease transmission from rats, loss of woodland habitat due to a change in Aboriginal land management practices, and competition for food from rats may all have contributed to its extinction.

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    White-footed rabbit-rat

    The white-footed rabbit-rat (Conilurus albipes) is an extinct species of rodent, which was originally found
    in woodlands from Adelaide to Sydney, but became restricted to south-eastern Australia. It was kitten-sized
    and was one of Australia's largest native rodents. It was nocturnal and lived among trees. It made nests
    filled with leaves and possibly grass in the limbs of hollow eucalyptus trees. The mother carried her young
    attached to her teats. In a letter to John Gould, then Governor of South Australia Sir George Grey said that
    he removed a baby from a teat of its dead mother. The baby clung tightly to Gould's glove.

    Sydney natives called it 'gnar-ruck' which translates as


    'rabbit-biscuit'. It was a problem in the settlers' stores at White-footed rabbit-rat

    about 1788. The last specimen was recorded at about 1845,


    but some were reported in 1856–57 and perhaps in the 1930s.
    Rats may have spread diseases or competed for food with the
    white-footed rabbit rat. Cats may have been predators, while
    the demise of Aboriginal firestick farming, which maintained
    woodland, may have made the rabbit rat extinct.

    Joyce and McCann, in Burke & Wills - The Scientific Legacy of


    the Victorian Exploring Expedition (CSIRO Publishing, 2012)
    state (p138 et seq) that the animal was seen by Beckler at
    Conservation status
    camp 53 in April 1861, in the vicinity of the Bulloo River
    system. Additionally, the authors state that the relief party of
    1862, which included Howitt, collected a specimen south of
    Coopers Creek.
    Extinct (1857) (IUCN 3.1)[1]

    References Scientific classification


    …
    Kingdom: Animalia

    Phylum: Chordata

    Class: Mammalia

    Order: Rodentia

    Family: Muridae

    Genus: Conilurus

    Species: †C. albipes

    Binomial name

    †Conilurus albipes
    (Lichtenstein, 1829)

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