The Arnhem Land rock rat (''Zyzomys maini'') also known as the Arnhem rock-rat and by the

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

name of kodjperr 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 na ...

in the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae come ...

. It is found only in the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...

Region of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Taxonomy

The description of the species was published by

Darrell Kitchener Darrell John Kitchener (born 1943) is a biologist who has been active in mammalian research in Western Australia and Indonesia. He is the author of over one hundred papers, published while employed as the senior research biologist at the Western ...

in 1989, emerging from a revision of the genus ''

Zyzomys ''Zyzomys'' is a genus of rodents with unusually thick, long tails. Five species of the genus are known in Australia, where they are called rock rats or thick-tailed rats. The genus was classified by Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas in 1909. Tax ...

''. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was an adult female, collected near Ja Ja Billabong in the Northern Territory, amongst some large boulders at outlying sandstone near a creek. The specific epithet ''maini'' was a tribute by the authors upon the retirement of

Bert Main Albert Russell Main CBE FAA FANZAAS (6 March 1919 – 3 December 2009) was an Australian zoologist. Born in Perth, Western Australia, he studied zoology at The University of Western Australia. He served in the Australian Imperial Force and the R ...

from the zoology department of the University of Western Australia.

Description

The rat typically grows to a size of in length with a mass of . It can be distinguished from other local rodents by its long whiskers, swollen tail and

Roman nose Roman Nose ( – September 17, 1868), also known as Hook Nose ( chy, Vóhko'xénéhe, also spelled Woqini and Woquini), was a Native Americans in the United States, Native American of the Northern Cheyenne. He is considered to be one of, if not ...

. It is an entirely terrestrial and

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

species, with a diet that consists mainly of seeds, fruit and some other vegetable matter. The rat will

cache Cache, caching, or caché may refer to: Places United States * Cache, Idaho, an unincorporated community * Cache, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Cache, Oklahoma, a city in Comanche County * Cache, Utah, Cache County, Utah * Cache Count ...

large seeds or at least move them to sites where it is safe to eat. It is able to breed all year round but females are rarely found to be pregnant late in the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

Distribution and habitat

Endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

massif of western

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

, the population is highly fragmented as a result of the topographic complexity of the deeply dissected plateau. The preferred vegetation for the rat is monsoonal

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

which is found patched throughout the landscape. The total area of occupancy is estimated to be from .

Conservation

The species is listed as near threatened with the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

, although the population of the species is in decline. Approximately 30% of the population is found within

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded liv ...

References

*Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1768978 Zyzomys Mammals of the Northern Territory Rodents of Australia Mammals described in 1989 Taxa named by Darrell Kitchener Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Arnhem Land tropical savanna Endemic fauna of Australia