A team of scientists finds the broad-toothed rat, or Tooarrana, scurrying around the Wilsons Promontory for the first time in 32 years.
A native rat vulnerable to extinction and known for its chubby cheeks has been found at Victoria's Wilsons Promontory for the first time in three decades.Scientists manage to track one of the chubby-cheeked rodents, trap it and release it back into the wildThe broad-toothed rat, or Tooarrana, is a tiny rodent historically found throughout south-eastern Australia.
The tiny rat has been vulnerable to predation by cats and foxes, habitat loss from an overabundance of grass-grazing animals, bushfires and climate change.A team of researchers, led by Zoos Victoria biologist Phoebe Burns and Parks Victoria ecologist Brooke Love, managed to track and trap one of the rats at the promontory before releasing it back into the wild.
"We thought, of course, that they had no longer existed and certainly, it hasn't been spotted [at Wilsons Prom] in more than three decades," Ms D'Ambrosio said. The state government said the discovery underscored the importance of a plan to turn 50,000 hectares of Wilsons Prom into a sanctuary.
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