The masked white-tailed rat (''Uromys hadrourus'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are n ...

in the family Muridae. It is found only in Australia, in north-east Queensland. Descriptive English common names for this species include Masked White-tailed Rat and Thornton Peak Uromys. During the 1990s there was a push for such names to be replaced with indigenous Australian names, and accordingly, in 1995 the

Australian Nature Conservation Agency Director of National Parks is a government-owned corporation of the Australian government responsible for the management of a portfolio of terrestrial and marine protected areas proclaimed under the ''Environment Protection and Biodiversity Con ...

published recommendations for the common names of rodents. They failed to identify any indigenous Australian names for ''U. hadrourus'', so recommended the adoption of the name Kuku, the Kuku-Yalanki name for any rat. However this recommendation was not prescriptive, and it remains to be seen to what extent it will be adopted.

References

* Uromys Mammals described in 1983 Mammals of Queensland Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Murinae-stub