Rattus tunneyi Thomas 1904

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1493

Rattus tunneyi Thomas 1904

Rattus tunneyi Thomas 1904 , Novit. Zool., 11: 223.

Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Mary River.

Vernacular Names: Australian Pale Field Rat.

Synonyms: Rattus apex Troughton 1939 ; Rattus austrinus Thomas 1921 ; Rattus culmorum (Thomas and Dollman 1909) ; Rattus dispar Brazenor 1936 ; Rattus melvilleus Thomas 1921 ; Rattus vallesius Thomas 1921 ; Rattus woodwardi (Thomas 1908) .

Distribution: Australia; NE and SW Western Australia, Northern Territory, E Queensland, and NE New South Wales. Also occurs on offshore islands. Recorded historically (holotype of austrinus probably from Kangaroo Isl; see Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:188), but otherwise only by subfossils (Robinson et al., 2000) from South Australia. Extant range vastly reduced from former distribution (see Taylor and Horner, 1973:89; Watts and Aslin, 1981; Braithwaite and Baverstock, 1995:663).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Rattus fuscipes species group. This species hybridized in the laboratory with R. colletti ( Baverstock et al., 1983 a, 1986). Revised by Taylor and Horner (1973) and reviewed by Watts and Aslin (1981), Mahoney and Richardson (1988), and Braithwaite and Baverstock (1995).