Mammal Feared Extinct Spotted on Remote Farm

A critically endangered critter has been sighted on a farm in the middle of nowhere.

The central rock rat is one of Australia's rarest animals, and experts feared it had gone totally extinct a few years ago.

Now, however, two of the little rodents have been spotted on wildlife cameras at the Glen Helen and Narwietooma cattle stations in Australia's arid Northern Territory.

"The critically endangered central rock rat has been seen at Narwietooma and Glen Helen stations on motion sensor cameras installed by Bush Heritage in partnership with Hewitt," Bush Heritage Australia said in a Facebook post, sharing one of the pictures

"Most people would say it's one of the two most endangered mammals in Australia, so a really good finding. [The rock rat] was thought to be extinct a couple of decades ago, so it's a really rare and threatened species," Bush Heritage Australia's Nick Mogford, who managed the research project, said in the post.

Central rock rats, also known as the central thick-tailed rock-rat, the MacDonnell Range rock-rat, or Australian native mice, is one of five rock-rat species native to Australia. They are nocturnal scavengers that grow to around 6 inches long.

They were once common across Central Australia, but have seen populations decline by 95 percent of their pre-European numbers, mostly due to hunting by feral cats. The species was feared extinct for nearly 30 years after it was last spotted in 1960, but a small population was discovered in Tjoritja/West MacDonnell National Park in 1996. This tiny stronghold of the species, which is classified as "Critically Endangered" on the IUCN Red List, fluctuates with the weather, booming during wet seasons and dropping off during drier periods.

The researchers were thrilled to have spotted the rare rodent on the cameras.

"It's a little bit of a needle in a haystack," Senior field ecologist Matt Appleby told local news ABC Rural. "There's often a lot of photographs you take of grasses just blowing in the breeze ... you're passing through thousands of photos, sifting through that, and then you get down to the last few ...you have to look at things like those features on the tail, or the length of the tail to the length of the body."

The two pictures were taken at cattle stations around 87 miles apart, implying that these critters might be part of a larger population in the region.'

"[The rock rat] used to occur right across Central Australia, in the Northern Territory, but right across the arid zone of Western Australia as well.

"It's gone from a massive area down to a speck on the map. It's quite unfortunate ... but there could be other populations, bigger populations out there."

The recent rainfall in central Australia has helped the rat population bounce back recently, due to the plentiful grass growing across the region. Unfortunately, this rainfall has also led to increased numbers of feral cats.

"That's why the focus on feral cat management is the highest priority [to conserve the rare species]," Mogford said.

Additionally, fires in the region may also threaten the rats, as they make it harder for the rodents to hide from the cats.

"Having shorter and more open vegetation actually makes it really easy for cats to prey on them as well," he said.

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