dunnart

plural dunnarts

1. Any species of the genus Sminthopsis of small carnivorous marsupials that resemble mice or shrews.

   Reptiles are an important food source for a wide range of animals, including birds and small native marsupials such as the yellow-footed antechinus and the fat-tailed dunnart.

   2010, Damian Michael, David Lindenmayer, Reptiles of the NSW Murray Catchment, page 7

   2 more examples

   After the winter solstice, while the ambient temperature still remained low, nest sharing declined rapidly, due to increasing intolerance among the fat-tailed dunnarts, as breeding began.

   2005, C. Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, Life of Marsupials, page 158

   During the original AWC survey, Alexander Baynes identified, in a single hollow salmon gum, 283 jaws of half-a-dozen native mammal species, mostly dunnarts, many of which were recovered from owl pellets.

   2009, Tim Winton, “Silent Country: Travels through a Recovering Landscape”, in Robyn Davidson, editor, The Best Australian Essays 2009, page 18