The smoky mouse looks like a tiny charcoal cloud with whiskers. Its fur is a soft blue-grey on top and paler underneath, with a neat dark ring around each eye and a dusky nose that makes it look as if it’s wearing a little mask. Its tail is longer than its body, pink underneath with a thin brown stripe on top, and its feet and big, rounded ears are a pale pink too.

Compared with the common house mouse, it’s chunkier, fluffier, and about two to three times the size, but still small enough to curl up in your hand. This species lives only in south-eastern Australia, where it hides in thick ground cover in coastal heath, dry forests, ferny gullies, and even chilly high country.

One of the coolest things about the smoky Mouse is its menu. It doesn’t just eat seeds like many other mice; it enjoys a mixed diet of seeds and fruits, underground truffle-like fungi, and even insects such as bogong moths. By digging up and nibbling on those fungi, it helps spread fungal spores through the soil, which in turn helps plants grow – so this little mouse is secretly a forest gardener. At night it comes out to forage, but during the day it rests in underground burrows tucked under rocks, logs or thick grasses. These burrows are often shared: smoky mice have been seen nesting together during the breeding season, a social behaviour that’s unusual among their close cousins.

There are some surprising bits of trivia, too. In one First Nations language, it’s also known as “Konoom,” and in the wild, there may be fewer than 2,500 left, making every individual important. In 2020, scientists feared one population had been wiped out by massive bushfires, only to later rediscover smoky mice alive in the burnt landscape – a real-life comeback story that made headlines.

Distribution

Country

Population est.

Status

Year

Comments

Australia

2015

New South Wales, Victoria

Australia

2015

Presence Uncertain: Australian Capital Territory