Rat on Rice

Explanation: It is nighttime, but active time for this nocturnal rodent. This is an Australian bush rat, a species that is common and distributed widely throughout the coastal and near-coastal regions of the country from northeast to southwest. This subspecies R. f. coracius occurs in the Queensland area of the northeast.

We are at Cassowary House in Karunda, Queensland, where we have previously enjoyed encounters with Red-necked Crakes and had been chased by a Southern Cassowary.

But ... now, rats? Actually, this is an interesting organism. Unlike the invasive, bold city rats despised by many, the Australian bush rat is rather shy and is mostly a night-dweller, feeding on bugs, seeds, plants, and more. It is indeed indigenous and native to Australia. And very much unlike another indigenous cousin of this region, the giant white-tailed rat.

Here, the Cassowary House owners threw a bit of cooked white rice into the forest edge to lure out this solitary investigator. They are not commonly observed, and although populations are secure, they are still subject to predation by cats and canids, and exclusion and competition by the invasive black rat.

But, for here, may they thrive in nocturnal solitude, sometimes with a bit of extra feeding.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week