The dietary ecology of Australian desert rodents

Abstract

Very little systematic information has been collected on the diets of Australian rodents in arid and semiarid regions. The information that is available is restricted generally to short periods of sampling and small sample sizes. Here we review the diets of 15 extant and one extinct species of Australian desert rodents, and provide new results of dietary analyses for (1) Leggadina forresti, Pseudomys desertorand Rattus villosissimus from the Simpson Desert, south-western Queensland, (2) P. albocinereus and P. bolami from the western goldfields of Western Australia, and (3) Notomys alexis, P. desertor and P. hermannsburgensis from the Tanami Desert, Northern Territory. Overwhelmingly, omnivory is the predominant dietary strategy, with most species (11) taking substantial amounts of invertebrate, seed and green plant material. Of the other five species, four can be considered herbivores and one a granivore. Of the four herbivores, however, one is extinct (Leporillus apicalis), one is restricted to an offshore island (Lep. conditor), while another (P. fieldi) is classified as a herbivore from a diet sample of four individuals only. Similarly, P. occidentalis is classified as a granivore on the basis of dietary sampling of two individuals alone. These findings indicate that omnivory, over and above any other dietary strategy including granivory, is predominant among rodents inhabiting Australian deserts.