Naked-tail climbing rat
| Naked-tail climbing rat | ||||||||||||
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| Tylomys nudicaudus | ||||||||||||
| ( Peters , 1866) |
The Peters's climbing rat ( Tylomys nudicaudus ) is to tylomys belonging kind of New world . It inhabits the tropical forests from southern Mexico to Nicaragua and is not endangered.
anatomy
The bare-tailed climbing rat is a very large New World mouse with a long, bare tail, short, wide paws and large ears. Their head-torso length is 188 to 266 millimeters, the tail length 195 to 262 millimeters, the hind foot length 39 to 45 millimeters and the ear length 24 to 29 millimeters. The body weight is given as 326 grams or an average of 280 grams. She often keeps her tail loosely rolled up.
The hair of the bare-tailed climbing rat is long, dense and woolly. It is gray, gray-brown or reddish-brown on the upper side and fades towards the sides of the body. The underside is pale reddish yellow or creamy white with the hairs white to the base. The legs and paws are brown to rust brown and some specimens have white toes. The groin and armpit regions are also white. The bare tail is shiny and its large scales form wide rings. From the root to about the middle it is very dark and beyond that it is completely white to the tip. The auricles are blackish and hairless, and the whiskers are thick and long. The eyes are rather small and their tapetum lucidum is light and reddish.
The bare-tailed climbing rat can only be distinguished from Tylomys tumbalensis and Tylomys bullaris by features of the skull. In contrast to Tylomys tumbalensis , the upper row of molars measures less than 9.1 millimeters. In contrast to those of Tylomys bullaris, the tympanic sacs are not noticeably inflated and have a noticeable anterior bulge. The spine has 13 to 15 thoracic vertebrae , six to seven lumbar vertebrae and 32 to 36 tail vertebrae .
Habitat and way of life
The habitat of the bare-tailed climber is old evergreen and semi- deciduous forests and dense secondary growth of climbing plants , usually near rocks, caves or rock walls.
The barber-tailed climber is nocturnal and semi-tree-dwelling , usually moving slowly and deliberately but can achieve great speed and dexterity on branches and creepers. Little is known about their diet . The stomach of a Veracruz specimen contained parts of plants that resembled lichen or bark . It is usually lured into traps with bananas or other fruits.
In captivity, the naked-tail climbing rat gestation period is 36 to 51 days and an average of 40 days. An average of 2.33 young animals are born per litter . The sexual maturity is reached at 10 to 20 weeks. One specimen of the species lived five years and five months. The sounds emitted include a cat-like hiss and a pig-like squeak.
Distribution and existence
The range of the bare-tailed climbing rat stretches from southern Mexico via Belize , Guatemala , El Salvador and Honduras to southern Nicaragua , although it is absent in northern Yucatan . It occurs from the lowlands to altitudes of 2300 meters, but is rare.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN classified the naked-tail climbing rat as not endangered in 2008. This was justified with the wide distribution, the presumably large populations, the occurrence in several protected areas, the lack of known threats and the improbability of a rapid population decline. In 1996 the species was also classified as not endangered.
Systematics and nomenclature
Hall (1981) distinguishes four subspecies of the bare-tailed climber rat:
- Tylomys nudicaudus villai Schaldach, 1966 in Guerrero and Oaxaca ,
- Tylomys nudicaudus microdon Goodwin, 1955 in Oaxaca,
- Tylomys nudicaudus gymnurus Villa, 1941 in Puebla , Veracruz and Oaxaca as well
- Tylomys nudicaudus nudicaudus (Peters, 1866) from Chiapas and Belize to Nicaragua.
Tylomys bullaris and Tylomys tumbalensis could also be assigned as subspecies of the bare-tailed climbing rat.
Tylomys nudicaudus villai
The range of Tylomys nudicaudus villai is limited by finds in Pedrera de Cajeles, 30 kilometers south of Chilpancingo in Guerrero; in Cueva del Cañón del Zopilote, 13 kilometers south of the Puente Río Mezcala in Guerrero; eleven kilometers south of Chicahuaxtla in Oaxaca; 36.5 kilometers north of San Gabriel Mixtepec in Oaxaca; and eight kilometers east of Río Grande in Oaxaca. The type specimen comes from the site near San Gabriel Mixtepec at an altitude of 1,600 meters and was described in 1966 by William J. Schaldach junior as Tylomys nudicaudus villai .
Tylomys nudicaudus microdon
The range of Tylomys nudicaudus microdon is limited by finds 6.5 kilometers south of the Valle Nacional in Oaxaca and in La Gloria, ten kilometers southeast of Santa María Chimalapa in Oaxaca. The type specimen comes from a rainforest near La Gloria at an altitude of 760 meters and was described by George Gilbert Goodwin in 1955 as Tylomys nudicaudus microdon .
Tylomys nudicaudus gymnurus
The range of Tylomys nudicaudus gymnurus is limited by finds ten kilometers west of Hueytamalco in Puebla; three kilometers north of Presidio in Veracruz; eight kilometers northwest of Potrero in Veracruz; three kilometers east of San Andrés Tuxtla in Veracruz; 25 kilometers southeast of Jesús Carranza in Veracruz; in Santiago Ixcuintepec in Oaxaca; as well as in Santiago Lachivía in Oaxaca. The type specimen comes from Presidio, was described in 1941 by Bernardo Villa-Ramírez as an independent species Tylomis gymnurus and in 1969 assigned by Goodwin as a subspecies of the bare-tailed climber.
Tylomys nudicaudus nudicaudus
The range of Tylomys nudicaudus nudicaudus is limited by finds eight kilometers north of Berriozábal in Chiapas; in Tuxtla Gutiérrez in Chiapas; in Palenque in Chiapas; in La Primavera, about 16 kilometers southwest of Cobán in Guatemala; in Silkgrass , Belize; in Chilata in El Salvador; as well as on the Río Coco in Nicaragua. The type specimen comes from Guatemala, was described in 1866 by Wilhelm Peters as Hesperomys (Tylomys) nudicaudus and was first listed in the genus Tylomys in 1897 by Édouard Louis Trouessart . According to Goodwin, the type location is probably in La Primavera at an altitude of 975 meters.
Web links
Used literature
- Systematic overview of mammals . In: Bernhard Grzimek (Ed.): Grzimek's Enzyklopädie Säugetiere. Volume 11 . S. 11-55 ( undated [1988], eleven-volume licensed edition).
- E. Raymond Hall: The Mammals of North America . 2nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York / Chichester / Brisbane / Toronto / Singapore 1981, ISBN 0-471-05444-5 (1181 pages).
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . 6th edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 (1936 pages).
- Fiona A. Reid: A Field Guide to the Mammals of Central America & Southeast Mexico . 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-534322-9 (346 pages).
- Scott J. Steppan: Revision of the Tribe Phyllotini (Rodentia: Sigmodontinae), with a Phylogenetic Hypothesis for the Sigmodontinae . In: Fieldiana: Zoology. New Series . No. 80 , 1995, ISSN 0015-0754 , pp. 1–112 , doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.3336 .
- E. Vázquez, Louise H. Emmons, Tim McCarthy 2008: Tylomys nudicaudus . In: IUCN 2011 (Ed.): IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2 . 2008.