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Australian Mammalogy Australian Mammalogy Society
Journal of the Australian Mammal Society
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Notes on the diets of four rodent species from Goodenough Island

Todd F. Elliott https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9304-7040 A B and Karl Vernes https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1635-9950 A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Ecosystem Management, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia.

B Corresponding author. Email: toddfelliott@gmail.com

Australian Mammalogy 43(2) 256-259 https://doi.org/10.1071/AM20022
Submitted: 2 March 2020  Accepted: 27 May 2020   Published: 2 July 2020

Abstract

Goodenough Island is in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea and is located off of New Guinea’s eastern coast. Goodenough Island has a unique yet poorly studied mammal community. Previous dietary study of mycophagous New Guinean forest wallabies showed that Goodenough Island’s endemic black forest wallaby (Dorcopsis atrata) ate at least 12 taxa of fungi. Using spirit collections at the Australian Museum in Sydney, we evaluated and compared fungal diversity in rodent diets on the same island. We sampled diets of four Goodenough Island rodent species (Chiruromys forbesi, Paramelomys platyops, Rattus exulans and Rattus mordax) and show that fungi are dietary components for three of these mammals.

Additional keywords: mycophagy, rare mammals, rodents, South Pacific islands.


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