Pilliga mouse

The Pilliga mouse or poolkoo, Pseudomys pilligaensis, is a small rodent of the family Muridae known from the Pilliga forest region of New South Wales, Australia, with specimens also trapped in Warrumbungle National Park and Weetalibah Nature Reserve. It is a small brown mouse, grey-brown above and white below with russet flanks, with a head and body of 73 to 80 millimetres, a tail about as long and a weight of 10 to 14 grams. Barry Fox and David Briscoe described it in 1980, but later work suggests it may be a southern population of the delicate mouse Pseudomys delicatulus or a hybrid with the New Holland mouse, so the IUCN lists it as Data Deficient. It is nocturnal and lives in burrows in shrubby woodland and heathland, its numbers rise quickly after fire and rain, and the threats named in the Pilliga include coal seam gas works, forestry, predation by cats and foxes and competition from the house mouse.