The Diet of Rattus Lutreolus and Five Other Rodents in Southern Victoria.

Abstract

Faeces were studied during 1 to 3 years for rodents live-trapped in 7 areas of Victoria. Diet changed with season for all 6 species studied. In general the staple diet of Rattus lutreolus was basal stem and young rhizome of monocotyledons, probably sedge, and of R. rattus was fungus. Fungus was a main food item for most species and places, especially in winter. Some was basidiomycete but by far the most, especially for R. rattus on coastal heath, was an underground phycomycete tentatively identified as Endogone incrassata. R. fuscipes ate various foods, mainly seeds, insects, fungus and fibrous plant material, whatever was seasonally abundant. Mus musculus ate mostly insects for most of the year, though it is usually considered granivorous and seed was available in summer. Only in June and July were insects less than half the value of food eaten. Pseudomys novaehollandiae ate many foods and almost no insects, but the sample of mice was too small to allow a general conslusion. P. shortridgei ate grass and fungus in autumn and winter but more variety in spring and summer, including flowers, seeds and insects.