Pseudomys fieldi

Pseudomys fieldi NatureServe Explorer Species Reports — NatureServe Explorer is a source for authoritative conservation information on more than 50,000 plants, animals and ecological communtities of the U.S and Canada. NatureServe Explorer provides in-depth information on rare and endangered species, but includes common plants and animals too. NatureServe Explorer is a product of NatureServe in collaboration with the Natural Heritage Network.

ITIS Reports — ITIS (the Integrated Taxonomic Information System) is a source for authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. The djoongari (Pseudomys fieldi), also known as the Shark Bay mouse and Alice Springs mouse, is a species of rodent in the murid family. The range of the species in Australia has become restricted to four islands in the Shark Bay area. It was once found throughout the western two thirds of Australia but it suffered greatly after the arrival of Europeans and feral animals. Its range was reduced to coastal sand dunes on Bernier Island, leaving it severely endangered. In 2003 the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) released some Shark Bay mice onto Faure Island in the hope of creating another population. Despite the presence of owls the reintroduction was successful and the population quickly grew to a larger size than that of Bernier Island, no longer leaving the species on the brink of extinction.

FWS Digital Media Library — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Digital Library is a searchable collection of selected images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and video.The population was named in a description published by Edgar Ravenswood Waite in 1896, the holotype was obtained at Alice Springs; the author allied the new species to the genus Mus. Another description was provided in 1910 by the mammalogist Oldfield Thomas, a new species named as Pseudomys (Thetomys) praeconis. Thomas described a specimen that was obtained at Shark Bay, where the collector Guy C. Shortridge found the dry skull of a female laying on the ground on Bernier Island at the Peron Peninsula; Shortridge reported that he thought the species was locally extinct. Another specimen held at the British Museum, an old female obtained by F. M. Rayner during the voyage of HMS Herald in 1858, was designated as the holotype.