Pale field rat

The pale field rat, Rattus tunneyi, is a rat of small to medium size endemic to Australia and also called Tunney's rat. It is nocturnal and herbivorous, spending the day in shallow burrows dug in loose sand or crumbly soil and foraging across the surface for grass stems, seeds, tubers and roots. Once found across almost all of mainland Australia, it is now restricted to the grasslands, sedges and cane-fields of the north and east after a large contraction of its range during the twentieth century. Its fur is a toffee-like yellow-brown shading to grey or cream beneath, and its tail, at 80 to 150 millimetres, is shorter than its head and body. Oldfield Thomas described the species in 1904 from specimens collected by J. T. Tunney, after whom it is named, and two subspecies are recognised. Feral cats and soil compaction from cattle put pressure on populations, and in Queensland it has been a pest of hoop pine plantations.