Big hamster rat

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Big hamster rat
Systematics
Superfamily : Mice-like (Muroidea)
Family : Nesomyidae
Subfamily : Hamster rats (Cricetomyinae)
Tribe : Cricetomyini
Genre : Beamys
Type : Big hamster rat
Scientific name
Beamys major
Dollman , 1914

The large hamster rat ( Beamys major ) is a mouse-like rodent from the subfamily of hamster rats (Cricetomyinae). It is closely related to the little hamster rat ( Beamys hindei ), but larger.

features

The large hamster rat reaches a head-trunk length of 136 to 173 mm, a tail length of 126 to 143 mm, an ear length of 19 to 21 mm, a hind foot length of 21 to 25 mm and a weight of 95 to 102 g. The cheek pouches are well developed. The fur is soft. The top is gray, the bottom is pure white. The chin, throat and upper chest are white. The ears are relatively large. The long prehensile tail has noticeable white markings. The relatively short limbs are white with four toes on the front feet and five toes on the hind feet. The males are, on average, larger than the females, with considerable overlap in sizes between the sexes. The karyotype is unknown.

Occurrence

The distribution area extends from northern and eastern Zambia via Malawi to northern central Mozambique , especially on Monte Mabu .

habitat

The great hamster rat lives in mountain forests and riparian forests usually at altitudes of 500 to 1000 m.

Eating behavior

The great hamster rat is nocturnal. It hangs mostly on the ground, but it can also climb, using its long grasping tail as a support when negotiating thin branches. Their diet consists mainly of fruits and seeds that are buried in underground reservoirs. Occasionally, insects enrich the food supply.

Reproductive behavior

Pregnant females have been observed during the rainy season between November and May. The average litter size is four to six young. The growth of the young is very rapid. By the age of four weeks they had reached a weight of 43 g. The gestation period of females of the closely related little hamster rat in human care is 22 to 23 days and their life expectancy is three to four years.

Systematics

The species status of the large hamster rat is controversial. In 1914 it was described by Guy Dollman as an independent species. In 1970 it was classified by C. Andresen Hubbard as a subspecies of the little hamster rat ( Beamys hindei ). This view was followed by William Frank Harding Ansell and his son in 1973 and Gordon Barclay Corbet and John Edwards Hill in 1991. Other authors, including Guy Musser and Michael D. Carleton , continued to regard Beamys major as a separate species. Clare D. Fitzgibbon , Herwig Leirs and Walter Verheyen pointed out in 1995 that the body sizes of Beamys hindei in southern latitudes were larger than those of specimens from northern latitudes. David CD Happold followed this assessment in 2013 and considered both the northern population of Kenya ( Beamys hindei ) and the southern population of Malawi ( Beamys major ) to be conspecific .

Ara Monadjem and Christiane Denys, however, take a different approach. In 2011, Denys and her colleagues demonstrated that the little hamster rats in Kenya and Tanzania have different karyotypes, and they speculated that the population from the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania might represent a third undescribed species of Beamys . In 2015, Denys and Monadjem maintained species status for Beamys major , and in the seventh volume of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World from 2017, the greater hamster rat is also considered a separate species.

literature

  • P. Hanney, B. Morris: Some Observations upon the pouched rat in Nyasaland. In: Journal of Mammalogy, Vol. 43, No. 2, 1961, pp. 238-248
  • Clare D. Fitzgibbon, Herwig Leirs, Walter Verheyen : Distribution, population dynamics and habitat use of the lesser pouched rat, Beamys hindei Journal of Zoology, Volume 236, Issue 3, July 1995, pp. 499-512. doi : 10.1111 / j.1469-7998.1995.tb02727.x
  • Christiane Denys, Aude Lalis, Émilie Lecompte, Raphaël Cornette, Sibyle Moulin, Rhodes H. Makundi, Robert S. Machang'u, Vitaly Volobouev, Vladimir M. Aniskine: A faunal survey in Kingu Pira (south Tanzania), with new karyotypes of several small mammals and the description of a new Murid species (Mammalia, Rodentia) , Zoosystema 33 (1), 2011, pp. 5-47
  • Ara Monadjem , Christiane Denys , Peter J. Taylor , Fenton Peter David Cotterill : Rodents of Sub-Saharan Africa: A biogeographic and taxonomic synthesis , De Gruyter, 2015, ISBN 3-11-030166-0
  • Ara Monadjem, Steven M. Goodman : Family Nesomyidae (Pouched Rat, Climbing Mice and Fat Mice) In: Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 7: Rodents II , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2017, ISBN 978-84-16728-04-6 , p. 201

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guy Dollman: LV. - On a new species of the rare genus Beamys from Nyasaland. In: Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Series 8, 14:83, 1914, p. 428. doi : 10.1080 / 00222931408693598
  2. ^ C. Andresen Hubbard: A First Record of Beamys from Tanzania With Observations on its Breeding and Habits in Captivity , Zoologica Africana, 5: 2, 1970, pp. 229-236. doi : 10.1080 / 00445096.1970.11447394
  3. ^ WFH Ansell, PDH Ansell: Mammals of the Northeastern Montane Areas of Zambia , Puku, Volume 7, 1973, pp. 21-69
  4. ^ GB Corbet, John E. Hill: A World List of Mammalian Species. Oxford University Press; 3rd edition, 1991, ISBN 978-019-8540-17-5
  5. ^ GG Musser, MD Carleton: Superfamily Muroidea . In: DE Wilson and DA Reeder (eds.), Mammal Species of the World: a geographic and taxonomic reference , Volume 3, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA. 2005, pp. 894-1531.
  6. ↑ Clare D. Fitzgibbon, Herwig Leirs, Walter Verheyen : Distribution, population dynamics and habitat use of the lesser pouched rat, Beamys hindei Journal of Zoology, Volume 236, Issue 3, July 1995, pp. 499-512. doi : 10.1111 / j.1469-7998.1995.tb02727.x
  7. ↑ David CD Happold: Genus Beamys In: Jonathan Kingdon, David Happold, Michael Hoffmann, Thomas Butynski, Meredith Happold and Jan Kalina (eds.): Mammals of Africa Volume III. Rodents, Hares and Rabbits. Bloomsbury, London 2013, pp. 154-157; ISBN 978-1-4081-2253-2 .
  8. ↑ Christiane Denys, Aude Lalis, Émilie Lecompte, Raphaël Cornette, Sibyle Moulin, Rhodes H. Makundi, Robert S. Machang'u, Vitaly Volobouev, Vladimir M. Aniskine: A faunal survey in Kingu Pira (south Tanzania), with new karyotypes of several small mammals and the description of a new Murid species (Mammalia, Rodentia), Zoosystema 33 (1), 2011, pp. 5-47
  9. ↑ Ara Monadjem, Christiane Denys, Peter J. Taylor, Fenton Peter David Cotterill: Rodents of Sub-Saharan Africa: A biogeographic and taxonomic synthesis , De Gruyter, 2015, ISBN 3-11-030166-0
  10. ↑ Ara Monadjem, Steven M. Goodman: Family Nesomyidae (Pouched Rat, Climbing Mice and Fat Mice) In: Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 7: Rodents II , Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2017, ISBN 978-84-16728-04-6 , p. 201