Water mouse

The water mouse (Xeromys myoides), also called the false water rat, marine mouse, mangrove mouse, manngay and yirrkoo, is a rodent native to waterways of Australia and Papua New Guinea. Oldfield Thomas described the species in 1889 and set up the genus Xeromys for it. It has a long, flattened head, small eyes, short rounded ears, yellow or orange upper incisors, and dark gray water-resistant fur fading to a white underside. Head and body length is about 100 millimetres and the average weight is 42 grams. It lives mainly in mangrove communities and shallow areas around lagoons, swamps and lakes, building mud and leaf nests at the base of mangrove trees, and it feeds at night on crabs, small mud lobsters, shellfish, snails and worms. Loss and fragmentation of its intertidal wetland habitat have led to its classification as vulnerable.