Part 2 Local threatened Species
Smoky Mouse
Species Identification
Common Name: Smoky Mouse
Scientific Name: Pseudomys fumeus
Diet and Habitat Requirements
Diet: The Smoky Mouse has a seasonal diet that consists of fruits and seeds in the summer and during the winter consisting of underground fungi.
Habitat: The Smoky Mouse inhabits diverse environments like dry forests, mountain heathlands and costal bushland. These areas all need to have thick ground plants, and shrubs, which helps the mouse stay hidden from predators and find food. They like these areas because they have a lot of protection where they can safely build nests and move around.
Limitations: Requires areas with significant ground coverage. long dry periods can greatly effect the population.
Conservation Status – And what does it mean?
Status: Endangered
Endangered means that the species is at serious risk of extinction in the near future and needs immediate help.
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) says that the Smoky mouse is in more danger that the bandicoot with its populations sitting only in the hundreds. And the chance of extinction is high If something doesn’t change soon.
The reason for the low population is the conditions that the smoky mouse has to live in are very specific, and not enough places, introduced predators and bushfires make it very hard for the smoky mouse.
Major Threats
Some threats to the bandicoot include:
Habitat Fragmentation: The clearing of land for agricultural use and urban development have isolated the populations and separates them into small isolated patches of lan, these patches of land are to small to support healthy life and populations and make it much harder for the mouse to find a mate.
Fires: Bushfires are an extremely big problem for the Smoky Mouse especially bad bush fires like the 2019 – 2020 Black Summer Fires which destroyed everything the mouse relied on, cover, food and shelter. In the graph above you can see this huge decline almost wiping out the species during this time frame.
Weeds and Invasive plants: These invasive plants and weeds crowd out the native plants, changing the ecosystem and making it much harder for the smoky mouse to live.
Conservation Strategies
Conservation Strategies for the Smoky Mouse Include:
Predator Control: This strategy relies on reducing the amount of predators like foxes and cats which both are major threats as they hunt these native rodents that cant defend themselves and are very easy to catch. – predator control is used to protect native species from introduced and invasive species that they cant defend themselves against.
This is done through baiting programs (Traps and poisons), Monitoring predator numbers and location through cameras and motion senses, exclusion fences to keep them out of certain areas.
Habitat Restoration: This strategies looks at replanting the native plants and trying to exterminate the invasive weeds and also creating habitat corridors to allow the Smoky Mouse to move safely between patches to find areas to nest, mates and food. – helps by rebuilding the environment so species can get the food, shelter and space they otherwise would not be able to get.
These strategies used allow us to target the 2 biggest issues the Smoky Mouse faces – Habitat Restoration and Predator control. together these can help us stabilise the population and allow for growth. Without these strategies the Smoky Mouse would have most likely gone extinct or would be very close to.