Blue-gray mouse

Pseudomys glaucus

Blamed on foxes

IUCN status: Extinct

Last seen: Pseudomys glaucus were last seen in 1956 between Burren and Walgett, northern NSW (IUCN 2023)

IUCN claim: “Extinction is considered to have been due to habitat clearance and predation by feral cats. Predation by red foxes may have contributed.”

Studies in support

Blue-gray mice were last confirmed and in north NSW 46-51 years after foxes arrived (Wallach and Lundgren 2025).

Studies not in support

Blue-gray mice were last confirmed in the region of southeast QLD and northeast NSW 39 years before, to 46 years after, foxes arrived (Wallach and Lundgren 2025).

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

In one region it cannot be verified that extirpation occurred after fox arrival.

Evidence linking Pseudomys glaucus to foxes. Last records of extirpated populations relative to earliest local records of foxes. Error bars show record uncertainty range. Predator arrival records were digitized from Fairfax 2019.

References

Fairfax, Dispersal of the introduced red fox (Vulpes vulpes) across Australia. Biol. Invasions 21, 1259-1268 (2019).

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023

Wallach A.D., Lundgren E.J. (2025) Review of evidence that foxes and cats cause extinctions of Australia’s endemic mammals. BioScience. DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biaf046