SPECIES: Pseudomys fumeus — Smoky Mouse, Konoom
CLASSIFICATION: Endangered
This one’s a little darling. A native grey mouse with a belly full of white fluff and usually a ring of dark hairs around the eyes – ever so cute. The elusive Smoky Mouse – or Konoom – is presently found in Victoria, NSW and the ACT. Although the distribution is wide, it’s not a fellow that’s easy to detect, and the remaining populations are small and fragmented.
More than likely contributing to its endangered status, the Smoky Mouse requires a stable and quality to live and breed, particularly surviving the winter season.
To put this mouse into perspective: the Smoky Mouse is larger than the House Mouse, smaller than the Black Rat, has a longer tail than native rats, its pink feet distinguishing it from the Swamp Rat and the Heath Rat. We hope you got all that.
Predation by introduced species (foxes, dingoes, feral cats), habitat fragmentation and the ever-present threat of fire are a few of the threats facing Smoky Mouse.