Elegant fat-tailed pouch rat
| Elegant fat-tailed pouch rat | ||||||||||||
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Elegant fat- tailed pouch rat ( Thylamys elegans ) |
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| Thylamys elegans | ||||||||||||
| ( Waterhouse , 1839) |
The elegant fat- tailed pouch rat ( Thylamys elegans ) occurs in central Chile from the Coquimbo region in the north to the Los Lagos region in the south.
description
The animals reach a head body length of 9 to 13.7 cm and have a 10.5 to 14.6 cm long tail. The weight of the animals has not yet been determined. The tail is usually 110% of the length of the head and, in its function as a fat store, can reach a diameter of 10 mm. The fur on the back and the top of the head are dark brown, the sides of the body are lighter gray-brown. As usual with fat-tailed rats, the hair is banded with three different color zones. The peritoneum is yellowish or whitish. Front and rear paws are small and whitish. The eyes are surrounded by narrow black rings that extend with a tail towards the nose. The ears are relatively large, hairless and reddish. The females do not have a pouch. The number of teats is 15, 7 on each side and one in the middle. The karyotype of the elegant fat-tailed rat consists of a chromosome set of 2n = 14 chromosomes (FN = 22).
Habitat and way of life
The elegant fat-tailed rat occurs in various forests and in bushland from sea level to heights of around 1000 meters. It prefers undisturbed habitats with closed canopy over open biotopes. She is good at climbing and also uses her tail to hold onto. The elegant fat-tailed rat feeds mainly on insects, their larvae and other arthropods , which together make up up to 90% of their diet. In addition, fruits, small vertebrates and possibly carrion are also eaten, if possible. She is nocturnal; almost 90% of the specimens caught so far were caught at night, some even at dawn. The animals spend the day sleeping, and specimens that have not eaten enough during the night fall into a torpor where their body temperature drops. To reproduce, the females of the elegant fat-tailed rat build nests of hair and leaves between rocks, in trees, in abandoned bird nests and in the earthworks of guinea pigs . Up to 17 young animals can be born, but a maximum of 15 have a chance of survival due to the limited number of teats and only 11 to 13 usually survive until weaning. The breeding season extends from September to March and the females give birth once or twice during this time.
Systematics
The author of the first description of the elegant fat-tailed rat is the British zoologist George Robert Waterhouse , who described it in 1839 under the name Didelphis elegans and named the Chilean port of Valparaíso as Terra typica . Today the species is placed in the genus of the fat- tailed pouch rats ( Thylamys ). Within the species, a northern and a southern clade can be genetically distinguished from one another. The boundary between the clades is formed by the Río Maipo and the urban area of Santiago de Chile . The sister species of Thylamys elegans is the pale fat- tailed rat ( Thylamys pallidior ).
status
The IUCN estimates the endangered status of the elegant fat-tailed rat as Least Concern . The range and population are large and the animals are found in different protected areas. The population density is 100 to 2200 specimens per square kilometer, depending on the area and the season.
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e f 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 176.
- ↑ 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 elegans in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: Solari, S. & Palma, E., 2015. Accessed March 15, 2020th