Coffee rat

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Coffee rat
Indian Bush Council at Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, India.jpg

Coffee rat ( Golunda ellioti )

Systematics
Family : Long-tailed mice (Muridae)
Subfamily : Old World Mice (Murinae)
Tribe : Arvicanthini
Golunda group
Genre : Golunda
Type : Coffee rat
Scientific name of the  genus
Golunda
JE Gray , 1837
Scientific name of the  species
Golunda ellioti
JE Gray, 1837

The coffee rat ( Golunda ellioti ) is a rodent widespread in South Asia that was once a dreaded coffee pest .

features

The length of the head body is 11 to 15 centimeters, with a tail 9 to 13 centimeters in addition. The fur is very variable in its color. There are gray, brown, yellow-brown and red-brown specimens. The texture of the fur is also very different from region to region; in some coffee rats it is relatively soft, in others it is bristly and almost prickly. The body of the coffee rat is compact and resembles a vole .

Distribution and way of life

The range extends from the far east of Iran via Pakistan to India and also includes Nepal and Sri Lanka . Coffee rats live here in very different habitats such as grass steppes, swamps and rainforests, but also on the edges of fields and plantations. Although they can climb, they mostly hang out on the ground.

Coffee rats breed especially where coffee is grown. They eat the buds and flowers of the coffee plants . When the first coffee plantations emerged in Sri Lanka at the end of the 17th century, entire crops were soon destroyed by these rodents. Since coffee growing in Sri Lanka was given up, the number of coffee rats has decreased again. In India the coffee rat is still considered a coffee pest, but does not seem to experience the same mass increase as it did in Sri Lanka.

Systematics

According to Wilson & Reeder (2005), the coffee rat occupies an isolated position among the old world mice and is therefore classified in its own genus, the Golunda group. According to genetic studies by Lecompte et al. (2008) these animals are part of a predominantly African radiation of Old World mice, to which the Arvicanthis group and others are also included and which are summarized as Arvicanthini.

literature

  • Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  • Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
  • Emilie Lecompte, Ken Aplin, Christiane Denys, François Catzeflis, Marion Chades, Pascale Chevret: Phylogeny and biogeography of African Murinae based on mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequences, with a new tribal classification of the subfamily. In: BMC Evolutionary Biology. Vol. 8, 199, 2008, pp. 1-21, doi : 10.1186 / 1471-2148-8-199 .

Web links

Commons : Coffee Rat  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files