Meet boguls, the small native bush rat returning to the North Shore

Turramurra’s newest residents are round, furry and fond of mushrooms. 

Bogul (pronounced bah-gool) is the Dharug name for what many know as the Australian bush rat, a small native rodent central to a local rewilding project that kicked off this Tuesday.

What is rewilding? Rewilding refers to a process in which native flora and fauna are reintroduced to areas where they have historically had populations. 

• The Sydney Rewilding Initiative is a project currently focusing on the reintroduction of boguls to the North Shore region.

• While found all along Australia’s eastern and southern coastline, the bogul disappeared from the North Shore around the early 20th century. 

Rat hunters: Professor Peter Banks, who has spent much of his life researching the rodents, theorised an epidemic of bubonic plague between 1900 and 1910 led Sydneysiders to hunt rats — native and invasive alike — en masse, even going so far as to place bounties on them.

On the ground: Mareshell Wauchope, a conservation ecologist at Sydney University, is a lead researcher in this latest rewilding initiative.

Finishing up with a day of releasing rodents into the Ku-ring-gai bushland, she told the Lorikeet that boguls can be identified by their round face, short tail and “a real pudding shape to their body”. 

According to her, unlike black rats, the bogul’s head makes up for about a third of its size.

The numbers: So far, the project has seen 12 bush rats released into the Twin Creeks Reserve near Turramurra. In the coming months, around 40 more will be released.

Good rats: The goal is not just to bring one form of native wildlife back to the area, but revitalise native flora and fauna as well.

• Project runners believe that, once introduced, boguls could outcompete and drive down the populations of invasive black rats. Wauchope told the Lorikeet that boguls can drive black rats away by smell and body language alone. 

According to Wauchope, boguls, which are fond of fungi, seeds and insects, are also great pollinators, and help native ecosystems thrive.

Thumbnail: Mareshell Wauchope