Rattus tunneyi Thomas 1904

Rattus tunneyi Thomas 1904, Novit. Zool., 11: 223.

Type Locality: Australia, Northern Territory, Mary River.

Vernacular Names: Australian Pale Field Rat.

Synonyms: Rattus apex Troughton 1939; Rattus austrinus Thomas 1921; Rattus culmorum (Thomas and Dollman 1909); Rattus dispar Brazenor 1936; Rattus melvilleus Thomas 1921; Rattus vallesius Thomas 1921; Rattus woodwardi (Thomas 1908) .

Distribution: Australia; NE and SW Western Australia, Northern Territory, E Queensland, and NE New South Wales. Also occurs on offshore islands. Recorded historically (holotype of austrinus probably from Kangaroo Isl; see Mahoney and Richardson, 1988:188), but otherwise only by subfossils (Robinson et al., 2000) from South Australia. Extant range vastly reduced from former distribution (see Taylor and Horner, 1973:89; Watts and Aslin, 1981; Braithwaite and Baverstock, 1995:663).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (nt).

Discussion: Rattus fuscipes species group. This species hybridized in the laboratory with R. colletti (Baverstock et al., 1983 a, 1986). Revised by Taylor and Horner (1973) and reviewed by Watts and Aslin (1981), Mahoney and Richardson (1988), and Braithwaite and Baverstock (1995).