Pilliga mouse

Pilliga mouse
File:Pilliga Forest- Threatened Pilliga Mouse.jpg
Conservation status
Data Deficient (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Pseudomys
Species:	P. pilligaensis
Binomial name
Pseudomys pilligaensis Fox & Briscoe, 1980

Pseudomys pilligaensis, commonly known as the Pilliga mouse or poolkoo, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. Until recently its distribution was said to be restricted to the Pilliga forest region of New South Wales, Australia but in 2013, a specimen was trapped in the Warrumbungle National Park after a bushfire. There are also suggestions that it is a hybrid between two other species. Its conservation status is currently listed as "Data Deficient".

Description

P. pilligaensis is a small brown mouse with grey-brown upper parts, the head and back greyer, grading through russet flanks to white underparts. The feet are pale pink on top with white hairs. The head-body length is and the tail about the same length or slightly less. The tail is pale pink with a distinct brown line along the top and a small tuft of darker hairs on the end. The ear length is and the weight of the animal is .

File:Pseudomys pilligaensis -Pilliga Forest, New South Wales, Australia-8.jpg

Pseudomys pilligaensis in the Pilliga forest

Taxonomy

The Pilliga mouse was first formally described in 1980 by Barry Fox and David Briscoe. They distinguished it from the similar species P. novohollandiae, P. delicatulus and P. hermannsburgensis on the basis of characters such as skull size and shape and the ratio between tail and head/body length. More recent work has suggested that it is a southern population of the delicate mouse Pseudomys delicatulus. Another suggestion is that it is it a hybrid between Pseudomys delicatulus and the New Holland mouse (Pseudomys novaehollandiae).

Distribution and habitat

P. pilligaensis was described as having a restricted distribution in the Pilliga forest in central New South Wales, having been collected from only four sites within the Pilliga "scrub", none more than 50 km apart. Two of the capture site were in Cypress–Eucalypt forest and the others in woodland. However, after a bushfire in January 2013 which burned about 80% of the Warrumbungle National Park, a specimen was collected in that park. Pilliga mouse populations increase rapidly in size after fire and it is possible that this may occur in the new area. Recent research indicates that population density is highest in recently burned areas with broombush (Melaleuca species), kurricabah (Acacia burrowii) and bloodwood (Corymbia trachyphloia) where the ground is covered with post-fire grasses, sedges and ash from bushfire. The mouse is nocturnal and apparently lives in burrows.

Conservation

As of January 2015, the Pilliga mouse is currently listed by the IUCN as "Data Deficient" because of the uncertainty of its taxonomic status. If further research indicated that the Pilliga mouse is a separate species, its status would be determined as "Endangered". Threats to the population in the Pilliga include exploration and infrastructure construction relating to coal seam gas, as well as habitat loss through forestry, predation by the introduced cat and fox, and competition from the house mouse.