John Savage wrote:

Around midday as I opened the back door a rat that was on the steps
jumped off into a patch of mondo grass and froze there for a minute.
I could see a baby rat clutching onto the adult's back up near the neck.

Now, I've never heard of a rat carrying its young like that, though I
have seen native mammals doing it in documentaries. So, before I set out
some rat bait I'd like to confirm this is almost certainly a rat. I'd
hate to wipe out a colony of native mammals living in suburbia through
mistaken identity.

From the brief glimpse I got, I'd say if anything the rat was blunter
than the usual town rat. I'm blaming this rat for having scratched in
a pot of potting mix where I've got some seeds sprouting (see other
thread on the 'tuba' climber), and that seems unusual for rattus rattus,
too.

Can anyone assure me that rats do transport their young on their back?

(I know that piggy-back is not the right spelling, but that's how most
people say it.)

No, they don't! Rats keep their babies in a nest and when the kittens
are ready to go a-foraging, they go independently of Mum.

What you saw might have been a marsupial something-or-other? Small
Ring-Tail Possum? Bandicoot? Marsupial Rat? Antechinus or Dunnart or one
of those little fellows? How exciting! *Do* try and get another look
(and a pic, if you can)!

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, Australia