False Water Rat, Xeromys myoides

Problem:
False Water-rats are threatened when  mangroves and adjacent salt-flats are altered by urban, industrial and agricultural development, mining and the construction of bund walls.  These rodents  have a life cycle that depends on mangrove communities.  Dingoes, foxes and feral pigs also prey on them.

Background Information:
False Water-rats are small nocturnal, native rodents that forage for small crabs, shellfish and worms inside mangrove forests.  They build enormous mud nests, like termite mounds, usually in sedges outside the mangroves where they, and their babies, can escape above the highest of tides.

Research:
Research by the Queensland Museum first documented many of the habitat and food requirements of this rare rat in south-east Queensland.  Additional cooperative research with the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage has focussed on its distribution and nesting requirements. Research has identified mangrove community preservation, feral predator control, water quality maintenance and insecticide use as major concerns in south-east Queensland.

Solution:
Protecting mangroves alone will not ensure survival of this rat.  To conserve it we must: preserve adjoining sedgelands and saltmarsh, maintain adjacent high tide banks with their cover of salt-tolerant woodland plants, avoid habitat fragmentation and maintain water quality suitable for the crustaceans that it feeds on.

The next species is the Bridled Nail Tail Wallaby