Chaco fat-tailed pouch rat
| Chaco fat-tailed pouch rat | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Thylamys pusillus | ||||||||||||
| ( Desmarest , 1804) |
The Chaco fat- tailed pouch rat ( Thylamys pusillus ) occurs in Paraguay west of the Río Paraguay , in the Argentine Formosa and in the south of the Bolivian department of Santa Cruz .
description
The animals reach a head trunk length of 7 to 12 cm, have a 8.5 to 13.4 cm long tail and reach a weight of 11 to 32 g. The tail is usually 115% of the length of the head. As usual with fat-tailed rats, the hair is banded with three different color zones. The back is dark gray to gray-brown, the head is lighter with a noticeable dark stripe on the middle of the head. The eyes are surrounded by narrow dark rings. The ears are large, hairless and colored reddish brown. The peritoneum is cream-colored to whitish. The hair is 7 to 9 mm long. Front and rear paws are small and whitish. The females do not have a pouch. The number of teats is 15, seven on each side and one in the middle. The karyotype of the Chaco fat-tailed rat consists of a chromosome set of 2n = 14 chromosomes (FN = 20).
Habitat and way of life
The Chaco fat-tailed rat occurs in the dry forests and thorn-bush savannas of the Gran Chaco . Typically, their habitat is with low trees, including various Quebracho species ( Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco and Schinopsis sp.), Bulnesia sarmientoi , Ceiba insignis and Tabebuia nodosa , as well as sea pigeons , mimosas , Maytenus , prosopis , cacti and prickly bromeliads existed in the bush . It feeds mainly on arthropods , fruits, seeds and leaves are also eaten. No information is yet available about their activity patterns and reproductive biology. The animals were previously caught on the ground and climbing in the bushes to heights of one meter.
Systematics
The Chaco fat-tailed bag rat was first described in 1804 by the French zoologist Anselme Gaëtan Desmarest under the name Didelphis pusillus . Today it is placed in the genus of the fat- tailed pouch rats ( Thylamys ). Within the genus Thylamys , the Chaco fat- tailed-pouch rat forms a clade (Chaco-clade) of closely related species together with the pampas-fat- tailed-pouch rat ( Thylamys citellus ) and the beautiful fat- tailed-pouch rat ( Thylamys pulchellus ) .
status
The IUCN estimates that the Chaco fat-tailed rat population is not endangered. The range is relatively large and the animals are likely to be numerous.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e Diego Astúa: Family Didelphidae (Opossums). in Don E. Wilson , Russell A. Mittermeier : Handbook of the Mammals of the World - Volume 5. Monotremes and Marsupials. Lynx Editions, 2015, ISBN 978-84-96553-99-6 . Page 178.
- ↑ R. Eduardo Palma, Dusan Boric Bargetto, Pablo Jayat, David A. Flores et a .: Molecular phylogenetics of mouse opossums: new findings on the phylogeny of Thylamys (Didelphimorphia, Didelphidae). Zoologica Scripta 43 (3): 217-234 January 2014, PDF
- ↑ Thylamys pusillus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2015 Posted by: de la Sancha, N., Teta, P., Flores, D. & Albanese, MS, 2015. Accessed March 15, 2020th