SPECIES: Pseudomys fieldi — Shark Bay Mouse
CLASSIFICATION: Vulnerable
This is the Shark Bay Mouse. Also know as the Alice Springs Mouse. Or Djoongari. Nicknamed the Shaggy Mouse, it's easy to see why. This little mouse is one of our native rodents with long, brown and quite shaggy fur. Once found throughout Australia and particularly across a large part of WA, sadly the Shark Bay Mouse is now extinct in NT and presumed extinct in SA. The Shark Bay Mouse is now restricted to four islands in the Shark Bay area in WA. Coastal sandy areas with dune vegetation tends to be the place they call home, sheltering in nests under vegetation and building tunnels and runways through piles of seagrass on beaches.
Predation by feral cats and foxes, changes to habitat due to fire, grazing/trampling by domestic stock and competition by rabbits for fertile habitat are all threats facing the survival of the Shark Bay Mouse.