Australian swamp rat

The Australian swamp rat (Rattus lutreolus), also known as the eastern swamp rat, is a rat native to the coasts of southern and eastern Australia. It has a stocky build with black-brown fur, black feet, a cream to brown belly and small ears almost hidden by hair; the body is about 160 mm long, the dark grey scaly tail about 110 mm and the mass around 120 g. Its range runs through lowland country from Fraser Island down the coast of New South Wales and Victoria to the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia, with a subspecies, velutinus, in Tasmania and another, lacus, in isolated patches of high altitude rainforest near Atherton, Queensland. It prefers thick vegetation along watercourses and in swamps, and can also live in coastal heath, dune scrub, grassland and sedgeland, moving through tunnels it forms in the vegetation. The diet is vegetarian, made up of reeds, seeds and swamp grass stems, with more insects and fungi eaten in summer and more seeds in spring. It is active by day and by night. Sexual maturity comes around August, breeding starts about October, litters range from one to eleven young and gestation lasts around 23 to 25 days.