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Head portrait of a mulgara

Crest-tailed mulgara

Mulgaras are small, carnivorous marsupials that eat insects, spiders and scorpions, small lizards and even other small mammals. Amazingly, mulgaras don't need to drink. They get all the water they need from their food. They can store fat in their tail as a buffer against food shortage, a good strategy in the unpredictable desert.

Scientific name: Dasycercus cristicauda

Rank: Species

Common names:

  • Ampurta,
  • Crest-tailed marsupial mouse

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Distribution

Map showing the distribution of the Crest-tailed mulgara taxa

Species range provided by WWF's Wildfinder.

Habitats

The following habitats are found across the Crest-tailed mulgara distribution range. Find out more about these environments, what it takes to live there and what else inhabits them.

Behaviours

Discover what these behaviours are and how different plants and animals use them.

Additional data source: Animal Diversity Web

Conservation Status

Least Concern

  1. EX - Extinct
  2. EW
  3. CR - Threatened
  4. EN - Threatened
  5. VU - Threatened
  6. NT
  7. LC - Least concern

Population trend: Stable

Year assessed: 2008

Classified by: IUCN 3.1

About

The crest-tailed mulgara (Dasycercus cristicauda), also called the ampurta, is a species of carnivorous marsupial from Australia. Also called the crest-tailed marsupial mouse, this animal slightly resembles a placental rat.

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Classification

  1. Life
  2. Animals
  3. Vertebrates
  4. Mammals
  5. Dasyuromorphia
  6. Dasyurid marsupials
  7. Dasycercus
  8. Crest-tailed mulgara

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