KANGAROO RAT.

Waikato Times, Volume 111, Issue 18638, 17 May 1932, Page 11

KANGAROO RAT.

NOT EXTINCT. SPECIMENS CAPTURED. (Empire Press Union.) ADELAIDE, May 11. The great interior of Australia has revealed to the world an animal curiosity which scientists had regarded as extinct for 90 years. It is the plain rat kangaroo Caloprynmus campestris, or, to give it the name by which it is known to the natives, Oolacunta. Mr Finlayson, curator of mammals at the Adelaide Museum, gives this description of the-animal, which is perhaps even more curious'than the kangaroo : Imagine a little animal about the bulk of a rabbit, but built-like a kangaro, with long spindly hind legs, tiny forelegs folded light on its chest, and a tail -half as long again as the body, and not much thicker than a lead pencil, and you have it in the rough. But its head is different .from that of any kangaroo or wallaby—short and blunt and wide, with, little close-set ears. It is uniformly coloured a clear pale yellowish; ochre exceedingly like the claypans and flood plains where it lives. Mr Finlayson captured specimens of Oolacunta in the Diamentina country, one of the most weird areas in Australia, about a thousand miles north of Adelaide. The search was an Intensive one in the heat, but the trails of the Oolacunta were soon picked up. Presently, by straining the eyes, the Oolacunta was seen, a mere speck, 30 or 40 yards ahead. “He seemed scarcely to touch the ground, but almost floated ahead In an eerie, effortless way .. that made the thundering horse behind behind seem by comparison like a coal hulk -wallowing in the sea.” T.o catch the Oalacunta. exhausted three horses, and ran the party 12 miles. But the best specimens were obtained by one of the aborigines, who caught them in a nest. This aborigine, while riding with others, -had spotted a nest and noted the head of the occupants in the opening watching the party. He rode on without a pause for a quarter of a mile, then, leaving his horse, made a rapid stalk upwind and grabbed both mother and babe from behind. This remarkable animal was first made known to science 'by John Gould in 1843, since when, until this latest find, no specimens were taken.