Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Muridae > Mesembriomys > Mesembriomys gouldii

Mesembriomys gouldii (Black-footed tree rat)

Synonyms: Mesembriomys hirsutus melvillensis; Mesembriomys hirsutus rattoides; Mus hirsutus (heterotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

The black-footed tree-rat also known as Djintamoonga (Mesembriomys gouldii) is one of two endemic arboreal rat species from the genus Mesembriomys found in the northern regions of Australia. The species is one of the largest murids found in Australia. It is a folivore and frugivore and its diet may be supplemented by invertebrates such as termites and molluscs. The tree rat is solitary and nocturnal, it is arboreal sheltering in tree hollows and pandanus stands during the day.
View Wikipedia Record: Mesembriomys gouldii

Endangered Species

Status: Vulnerable
View IUCN Record: Mesembriomys gouldii

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
4
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
34
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 8.91
EDGE Score: 2.99
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  1.984 lbs (900 g)
Birth Weight [1]  35 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Nectarivore
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Nectar [2]  80 %
Forages - Arboreal [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  71 days
Gestation [1]  44 days
Litter Size [1]  2
Litters / Year [1]  4
Maximum Longevity [1]  8 years
Nocturnal [2]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  13 inches (33 cm)
Weaning [1]  47 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Kakadu National Park II 4744348 Northern Territory, Australia

Prey / Diet

Eucalyptus tetrodonta (Darwin stringybark)[4]
Pandanus spiralis[5]
Persoonia falcata (wild pear)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Conilurus penicillatus (Brush-tailed rabbit rat)2
Mesembriomys macrurus (Golden-backed tree rat)2

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Breinlia presidentei <Unverified Name>[6]
Parasabanema praeputialis[6]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4DIETS OF THREE SPECIES OF TREE-RAT, MESEMBRIOMYS GOULDII (GRAY) M. MACRURUS (PETERS) AND CONILURUS PENICILLATUS (GOULD) FROM THE MITCHELL PLATEAU, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, CIVA M. MORTON, Thesis for Degree of Bachelor of Applied Science, University of Canberra, 1992
♦ 5The diet of the brush-tailed rabbit-rat (Conilurus penicillatus) from the monsoonal tropics of the Northern Territory, Australia, Ronald S. C. Firth, Elizabeth Jefferys, John C. Z. Woinarski and Richard A. Noske, Wildlife Research, 2005, 32, 517–523
♦ 6Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0