susannah wrote:

Where are you? urban sprawl, or other??

You might be surprised to find you have Antechinus living nearby. I am in
deepest Suburbia in Sydney, just near Parramatta, and we get Antechinus in
our yard quite often.

They turn their victims inside out and leave the skin. Quite a clever way
to eat something really

Not forgetting Bush Rats (Rattus fuscipes), they'll have a gnaw on anything
moving or still! lol


Now that you mention it, there's something that's had me befuddled for a
couple of years...

Once, the family and I were wandering along Nobby's Breakwater
(Newcastle, NSW). Right at the very end, among the tumbled rocks and
fishermen's litter, we spotted two enormous rats, each with half a white
tail! That is, the end half of each rat's tail was white. The rats were
dark brown to black and didn't have that 'Rodentia' look that the common
rat does: their snouts were much shorter and they seemed to have cheek
pouches. Anyway, I wondered at the time if they could possibly be
marsupial rats, but assumed they were just black rats who'd been
stirring whitewash with their tails.

Does anyone know what these rats might be?

--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia