Broad-toothed Rat (Mastacomys fuscus mordicus)

Description

The Broad-toothed Rat is a medium-sized native rodent with a broad face, short tail, and stocky body.
It measures 14–17 cm in head/body length and has a tail length of 10–13 cm.
Its fur is soft and dense, brown tinged with rufous on the dorsal side and merging to grey underneath, and it may have a green tinge due to the presence of algae.
The ears are small and round with tufts of hair inside, and the feet are brown above and below.
The lightly-haired tail is dark above, becoming slightly lighter underneath.
This rat has large molars, a rounded head, well-developed cheeks, and large jaw muscles.
The Broad-toothed Rat is mostly nocturnal and herbivorous, feeding on grasses, sedges, shrub foliage, fungi, bark, and moss.
Breeding occurs between October and March, with females giving birth to 1-4 young per litter, with 1-2 litters per season.
Sexual maturity is reached in 8-10 months, and the species lives for approximately 2-3 years.
The Broad-toothed Rat is currently threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, predation by foxes and cats, and possibly climate change.

The Broad-toothed Rat’s distribution is broken up across Vic, NSW and the ACT.
It’s found in Namadgi National Park in the ACT.
They prefer alpine and subalpine heaths and eucalypt woodlands, wet sclerophyll forest, grasslands and wet sedgelands from sea level to 2200m.

National – Endangered (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999).
Australian Capital Territory – Endangered (Nature Conservation Act 2014).

Conservation actions aim to:

maintain and protect habitat
mitigate feral predator impact
reduce the extent and intensity of fires in their habitat
control feral herbivores
long term monitoring to establish trends
consider translocation if necessary, where populations are unnaturally fragmented and do not recover without assistance