Mitchell's hopping mouse

Mitchell's hopping mouse (Notomys mitchellii), also called the pankot, is the largest living member of the genus Notomys and weighs between 40 and 60 grams. It is a bipedal rodent with large hind legs, resembling a jerboa or a kangaroo rat, and a long tail ending in the brush of hairs typical of hopping mice, which is thought to help it balance at speed. Its coat is sandy grey with white chest hairs and a paler belly. The species lives across much of semi-arid southern Australia and is especially common on the Eyre Peninsula of South Australia, typically in mallee shrubland on sandy dunes. By day it shelters in burrows made of a few interconnected vertical shafts dug deep into the dune, and up to eight animals of different ages and sexes have been found in one burrow. It is nocturnal. It copes with water shortage less well than other hopping mice, concentrating its urine in a different way, and animals caught in drought had stomachs holding about 85 percent roots, 11 percent green leaf and 4 percent seed. It has lived up to five years in the laboratory. The species is currently considered unthreatened, although habitat disturbance since European settlement has reduced its range.