I have had time recently to go through a few of the thousands of photographs my trail cameras take over the weeks I leave them out there. I could be wrong of course, as I'm no expert, but I think I may have captured two images of a rare rodent near the upper Gibralter Creek, Corin Forest ACT.

The Smoky mouse is a vulnerable native species of rodent that hasn't had a reported sighting in the Brindabella Ranges since 1987. If it is one it would be encouraging. There are apparently only 2500 individuals left in the wild and these seem to be in decline. The same old, same old story is repeated. Feral cats and dogs are decimating them.

I have put the images captured on this short video including a loop off the animals movement across the fallen branch it was captured on...

Anyway I'll make some enquiries. I really don't think where I found it that it is a common rat. Its the description of

It is a grey-furred mouse, darker grey above and paler smoky grey below. Mice from the Grampians are larger and a darker more slate-grey above. It has a black eye-ring and dark grey muzzle. The feet are light pink, and the ears a grey-pink. The tail is longer than the mouse's body, and is pink with a brownish stripe along the top.

The size of between 107 & 122 mm adds up... about 5 inches.

The department of the environment have an excellent page - Pseudomys fumeus — Konoom, Smoky Mouse here

The daytime shot...


The images with the subject highlighted...



The original images...