Gould's mouse

Gould's mouse (Pseudomys gouldii) is a rodent of the murid family that is also known as the Shark Bay mouse and, in the Pintupi and Luritja languages, as the djoongari. It once ranged across Australia, from Western Australia to New South Wales, but its range was reduced to five islands off the coast of Western Australia. It is a fairly large Pseudomys with long, shaggy fur: the upper parts are pale yellowish fawn with darker brown guard hairs, the underside and feet are whitish, the tail ends in a dark tuft, and the head and body measure 90 to 115 mm with an average mass of about 45 g. It is social, living in family groups of four to eight that shelter by day in a grass nest inside a burrow dug under bushes. The species was declared extinct by the IUCN in 1990 after the last specimens were collected in 1856 and 1857, but a 2021 genetic study showed that the island populations formerly called the djoongari belong to the same species, and the djoongari is now classed as Vulnerable. Reintroductions have been made to Faure Island and Dirk Hartog Island.