The little red kaluta (Dasykaluta rosamondae) is a small, reddish-brown, shrew-like mammal native to dry grasslands of northwest Western Australia.
[5] The earliest specimen was collected in 1936 by Mr. R. M. W. Bligh near Tambourah (Marble Bar) and deposited at the Western Australian Museum, its dental formula leading to a tentative diagnosis of a species of Dasycercus by Ludwig Glauert.
The species name, rosamondae, is a threefold reference to Rosamund Clifford, the famous mistress of Henry II of England, who is said to have had red hair, its spinifex dominated habitat resembling "a house of wonderful working, so that no man or woman might come to her ...", alluding to a maze at Woodstock Palace where the king hid her and the place of the species discovery, Woodstock Station.
[6] Male little red kalutas, like several other dasyurid species, die shortly after the September breeding season, probably due to stress.
[6] The little red kaluta is moderately common in the Pilbara, the west of the Little Sandy Desert and parts of the Carnarvon Basin in Western Australia.
Kaluta live and forage on the sandy soil of the region, searching for invertebrate prey amongst the dense and tough mounds of spinifex.