Careful: there are a lot of native wildlife that live around your home, or some in your homes that you are not aware are native. The best examples are the Native Bush Rat or the Antichimus, which are mistaken for the introduced species of Black Rat or Brown Rat and the house mouse.

Let’s start with the Antechinus. 

Antechinus are part of the Dasyuridae Family, and underneath the Antechinus genus. They are a group of 10 species in Australia that are commonly confused with the House Mouse (Mus musculus). The main difference between the two is their diet. Antichimus eat insects, whereas the House Mouse eats an omnivorous diet (grains, plants and insects), but mostly goes for grains. 

The easiest way to tell them apart from the house mouse, is by the shape of their face. The Antechinus has a more pointed face, than the house mouse. 

Otherwise, they can be identified by:

  • Ears: Most (not all) of the Antechinus species have large crinkly thin ears that have a notch in them. 
  • Tail: Antichimus, have tails that are sparsely haired, and the same length (or shorter) as the body
  • Toes: the back (hind) feet of the Antechinus, has no claws (nails) on the thumb, whereas introduced species have claws on all digits. 
  • Teeth: Antechinus have small sharp “cat-like” teeth, compared to rodents which has a pair of prominent front teeth that are hard yellow in colour. 
  • Scat: Antichimus have a diet that is prominent in insects, small lizards and some berries. You should be able to notice on the scat, some fragmented insect parts. Which would not be found in introduced species.
  • Smell: They don’t have a musty smell that mice do
  • Nests: They build spherical nests in hollow logs and crevices, sometimes they can be found nesting in furniture in farms or bush areas.

 If you want to read about a rescue that one of our members has done of some Antechinus, Please go to the Featured Rescue Page.

Now, let’s look into Rats:

There are many species of Rats in the world, there are a total of 56 species known. But there are two (2) species that have overshadowed all other species in the genus. These two (2) species are the Black Rat (Rattus rattus) and the Brown Rat (Rattus norvegicus). 

Let’s look into the Black Rat first. The Black Rat, which actually has an array of greyish-brown on the head and back, and a belly that is often white, or pale in colour, not actually black. They originate from India. 

Whereas the Brown Rat, also, has a paler belly, but actually is brown in colour (as the name suggests) on the back and head. The Brown Rat originates from Siberia and China. 

Both introduced species are competitive for resources. Although they are not fussy about their diet.

A Quick Look Through History:

How did Australia get Rats?

The Arrival of Rats into Australia, can be seen in three events. 

The First Event: 6-8 million years ago there was the “Old Endemic” species of rodents brought into Australia. These species have common names, like Hopping Mice, Mosaic-tailed Rats, Prehensile-tailed Rats, Rabbit-Rats, Rock Rats, Stick Nest Rats and Water Rats.

The Second Event: 1 million years ago there was the “New Endemic” species, which some of these species can be found in Sulawesi. Among these, through evolution, there are seven disting native species of rats, which adapted to different environments (coastal heath, arid desert and lush tropical rainforest)

The Third Event: Is the introduction of the Black Rat and Brown Rat (as well as the House Mouse) into Australia, by the European colonists, in the late 1700

Unfortunately, for the “New Endemic” (native) species, they can look similar to the introduced species.

So, how to differentiate between them?

There are three species, which can be found in South Australia. These are the Bush Rat (Rattus fuscipes), the Water Rat (Hydromys chrysogaster) and the Swamp Rat (Rattus lutrolus). Although they are similar to The Introduced Two, they are able to be differentiated from them. 

First, the Brown Rat is easily identified, using the tail, which appears naked, as well as thick. As well as its robust body, and slanted snout.

Second, the Water Rat is also identified easily, using its larger size, gold-tinted fur and long white tipped tail.

When differentiating the Native Rats to the Black Rat, you should look for:

  • The Tail: Mainly the length of the tail. The Black Rat has a tail that is longer than its body, compared to native rats, which have tails that are shorter than their bodies length. Also, the Black Rat have short hairs on their tails. 
  • The Ears: Black Rats have large rounded ears that stand up proud (and could cover their eyes if folded forward). Whereas, Swamp Rats ears are rounded and small, and found flat against the skull and the Bush Rats have larger ears than Swamp Rats, but still smaller than the Black Rat
  • Behaviour: Native Rats are shy and skittish in nature, they also feed on native plants. Compared to the Black Rat, which are bold, and would be seen running around the place and eating anything they can find
  • Nest: Bush Rats, have a tendency to line their nest with grass (under logs and rocks), compared to Black Rat, which line their nests with anything they are able to shred (and usually in your roof)
  • Climbing: Most Native Rats are poor climbers, so if you see a rat happily (and easily) climbing around, it is probably the Black Rat
  • Toes: The Native Rats have no claw on the hind foot, Big Toe (Thumb), whereas the Introduced species does have claws on all their toes. 

Introducing the Yellow Footed Antechinus

(see all pictures at bottom in the gallery)

INTERESTING FACTS: 

Antechinus are Marsupials. They are a Protected Species. They are classified as vulnerable in South Australia. Their back feet have a thumb (like the rat) however, have no claw on this thumb. They have small cat-like teeth.

Breeding season is once a year in August/September. When the males have matured at roughly 10 months to a year, during breeding season, they spend approximately 2 weeks visiting any females in their territory. They frantically spend that 2weeks mating, then the males die from exhaustion. The females will generally live for 2 breeding seasons.

Antechinus have the biggest litter of any Australian marsupial, averaging eight to ten babies. The females have tiny pouches and the joeys hang from her teats outside of the pouch, she looks like she is carrying tiny jelly beans on her belly.

Once they are too big to carry, the female makes a leaf nest in a tree hollow and leaves the joeys there. She then moves to a communal nest that is shared with other females and regularly returns to feed her joeys. The females will have 2-3 nests in the area to choose from and will move their joeys from one nest to another if they feel threatened. Females will return to these nests every season. When the joeys are weaned, they start to come out of the nest and forage for insects.

Also known as a marsupial mouse, this small carnivorous marsupial snacks on insects, reptiles, and sometimes even mice.

The trouble is, antechinus looks similar to a normal house mouse. But being a native and vulnerable species, they cannot be subjected to pest control.

Antechinus are most commonly found in stringybark forests in the Morialta Conservation Park or conservation parks on the Fleurieu Peninsula and Central Mount Lofty Ranges regions.

So, if you’re living on the Fleurieu Peninsula or the Adelaide Hills region (as far north as Para Wirra Conservation Park), it’s possible that what you think is a mouse in your house could potentially be an antechinus.

How can you tell the difference between an antechinus and a mouse?

The quickest way to tell the difference between an antechinus and a mouse is by looking at their head.
An antechinus has a much pointier, long, narrow snout, unlike a mouse, which has a round head and nose. They are also larger than a mouse, with the body length of an antechinus up to 165 millimetres long, it also has a tail that is approximately the same length as its body. They also have a white ring of fur around their eyes, doubled lobed ears, and yellow feet, legs and bellies.

While mice and rats create a musky smell, antechinus have no lingering odour.

Antechinus scats are also very different to house mouse scats. They are much larger and cylindrical shaped. As their diet consists of insects (including spiders and cockroaches), small lizards and berries. Visible on the surface of the antechinus scat should be different types of fragmented insect parts SANAR’S First Encounter with Antechinus In late October this year, SANAR received a phone call from a member of the public.

They thought they had found 9 baby possums while clearing some of their land around their house. One of our possum carers spoke with the homeowner and requested some pictures.

Our carer advised that they were some kind of mouse/rat but was unsure so she contacted another experienced carer and
sent the photos.

After much discussion, it was decided to pick up this litter of tiny creatures and investigate further.

A lot of google and YouTube was involved, and finally, the conclusion was that these little animals were Yellow Footed Antechinus.

As there were 9, it was a case of divide and feed. They were all 5g and needed to be fed every 5 hrs. One of the carers was lucky enough to have their identity confirmed by Wildlife Vet Dr Anne Fowler, who advised that they needed to be fed on Kangaroo >0.7 (higher fat content).

Unfortunately, 2 passed away, as they went into a torpor and stopped breathing. However, the 7 that survived, 2 females and
5 males thrived. They were housed in an incubator as they were very tiny and couldn’t regulate heat; they quickly grew to 14g.

During that time their facial and body characteristics changed, and they clearly started to look like little Antechinus.

One of the carers went in search of a vivarium in which to house them until they could be released. She was fortunate to have a large vivarium donated to SANAR from Marine Plus Aquariums at Lonsdale.

Leaf litter, a tree hollow and small bird box were put in the vivarium. The females immediately set up home in the bird box and the males happily took the tree hollow. Long pieces of bark and some small branches with leaves and flowers were put in.

The antechinus love to explore and
climb. They are now living on a varied diet,
including kangaroo milk formula, mealworms, crickets (which they enjoy searching for), earthworms and some occasional bird seed.

They are constantly active and have some interesting behaviours. When fresh bark is provided, the males frantically go about marking the territory and take time to explore every new piece of bark and branches that are put into the vivarium.

They will soon be released back to the location they were found, as this is their territory and will be populated by other yellow footed antechinus.