Dusky rat

Dusky rat
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Rattus
Species:	R. colletti
Binomial name
Rattus colletti (Thomas, 1904)
Synonyms [2]
Mus collettiThomas, 1904

The dusky rat (Rattus colletti) is an indigenous species of rodent in the family Muridae found in Australia.

Name

Kunwinjku people of western Arnhem Land call this animal mulbbu, a name also applied to other rodent species. ^[3] It was first described in 1904 by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas. ^[4]

Range

The rat is found only in the monsoonal subcoastal plains of the Northern Territory, Australia.

Predation

The dusky rat is eaten according to Peterson Nganjmirra ^{[5] [ page needed ]} and is prey to the Australian water python (Liasis fuscus) also ranging across northern Australia.

References

1. Oakwood, M.; Zichy-Woinarski, J. (2016). "Rattus colletti". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016 e.T19326A22444443. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T19326A22444443.en . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
2. Jackson, Stephen; Groves, Colin (2015). Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Csiro. p. 213. ISBN   978-1-4863-0013-6.
3. "mulbbu". Bininj Kunwok Dictionary. Bininj Kunwok Regional Language Centre. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
4. Thomas, O. (1904). "New species of Pteropus, Mus, and Pogonomys from the Australian region". Novitates Zoologicae. 11: 597–600. doi: 10.5962/bhl.part.26839 .
5. Reverend Peterson Nganjmirra, personal comment in Goodfellow's, Fauna of Kakadu and the Top End, 1993 ISBN   9781862543065

• Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1468. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.