Little bamboo rat
| Little bamboo rat | ||||||||||||
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Little bamboo rat ( Cannomys badius ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Cannomys | ||||||||||||
| Thomas , 1915 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Cannomys badius | ||||||||||||
| ( Hodgson , 1841) |
The small bamboo rat ( Cannomys badius ) is a burrowing rodent belonging to the root rat subfamily . It is distributed from the Himalayas via Bangladesh , Myanmar , Thailand , Laos to northern Vietnam .
It is the only species in the monotypic genus Cannomys .
With a head body length of 15 to 25 cm, it is significantly smaller than the "real" bamboo rats . There is also a 6 to 7 cm long tail. The shape of the small bamboo rat resembles a pocket rat , but it lacks the cheek pouches. The thick fur is gray, light brown or reddish brown in color.
The corridors are laid out both under grassland and in the forest floor. They reach very deep and are excavated with the help of claws and teeth. At night the little bamboo rat sometimes leaves the burrow to look for food. Mainly roots and shoots are eaten, but also all other parts of the plant - but by no means just bamboo , as the name might suggest.
Small bamboo rats are said to be capable of causing damage in tea plantations , but are not frequent enough to pose a serious threat here. They are eaten in southern China, Laos and Myanmar.
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 .
Web links
- Image at ADW
- Cannomys badius inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Threatened Species . Posted by: Aplin, K., Lunde, D., Musser, G., Frost, A. & Molur, S., 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2013.
