Bare tail pouch rats
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Preparation of a bare-tailed rat in the Koenig Museum . |
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The naked-tailed opossums ( Metachirus ) are a marsupial genus of the family of opossums (Didelphidae). They are also called brown four-eye pouch rats , but are not closely related to the four-eye pouch rats of the genus Philander .
description
These animals are among the larger opossum rats, they reach a head trunk length of 24.5 to 28 centimeters and a weight of 284 to 480 grams. Their short, dense fur is colored reddish-brown, yellowish-brown or gray-brown on the upper side, the underside is light gray. Their face is almost black, and above each eye they have a gray spot, from which they owe their name to four-eye pouch rats. The tail, which is longer than the body (33 to 37 cm), is hairless except for the root. The females do not have a pouch and the naked tail pouch rats are the largest opossum rat genus in which this is the case.
distribution and habitat
Naked tail pouch rats are native to Central and South America, their range extends from southern Mexico to northern Argentina . Their habitat is forests or bush-lined grasslands.
Way of life
These marsupials live both in trees and on the ground and are strictly nocturnal. Nests made of leaves and twigs, but also caves in the ground and crevices in the rock serve as resting places. These animals are omnivorous, but primarily eat fruit. In addition, they consume insects, bird eggs and small vertebrates.
They don't have a pouch, just folds of skin that hide the five to nine teats. The litter size is between one and nine, the gestation period should be very short as with all opossum rats. The life expectancy of these animals is unlikely to exceed three to four years.
Systematics
The first species assigned to the naked tail pouch rats was described in 1803 by the French zoologist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire . Saint-Hilaire gave it the name Didelphis nudicaudata , so assigned the species to the possums . Another species (now Metachirus myosuros ) was described by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1824. The genus Metachirus was introduced in 1854 by the German natural scientist Hermann Burmeister . In the first quarter of the 20th century, other species of the genus were described. All were later synonymous with Metachirus nudicaudatus and the species was long considered the only species of the genus Metachirus, which is monotypical with it . In the marsupial volume of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World , published in June 2015, Metachirus nudicaudatus was described as the only species of the genus with five subspecies:
- Metachirus nudicaudatus nudicaudatus , Venezuela south of the Orinoco , the three Guayanas and northern Brazil
- Metachirus nudicaudatus colombianus , Chiapas , Central America, western and northern Colombia, Venezuela west of Lake Maracaibo, and western Llanos and the northwest of Ecuador
- Metachirus nudicaudatus modestus , southern Brazil, east and central Paraguay, and the Argentine provinces of Misiones and Formosa
- Metachirus nudicaudatus myosuros , eastern Brazil from Pernambuco to Santa Catarina
- Metachirus nudicaudatus tschudii western Amazon basin, d. H. Southeast Colombia, West Brazil, East Peru, and North and East Bolivia
However, the authors note that it is likely that the genus contains more than one species, as there are large genetic differences between the nudibranch pouch rats from different regions. In June 2019, the pouch rat expert Robert S. Voss and two other biologists therefore divided the bare tail pouch rats into two species. The populations of nudibranch rats found in northeastern South America, which have a basal position in the Metachirus family tree, are becoming an independent species that is given the name Metachirus nudicaudatus , as the terra typica of Metachirus nudicaudatus is in French Guiana . All other populations and subspecies are grouped together under the name Metachirus myosuros .
The relationships within the bare-tailed pouch rats according to Voss et al .:
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Within the opossum family (Didelphidae), the genus Metachirus belongs to the subfamily Didelphinae and is the only genus of the tribe Metachirini there.
threat
Naked-tailed rats are considered a nuisance in some places because they devastate fruit plantations. They are common and widespread; the IUCN lists them as “not at risk” ( least concern ).
literature
- Nowak, Ronald M .: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-8018-5789-9
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d Diego Astúa: Family Didelphidae (Opossums). Pages 70-186 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 157.
- ^ Hermann Burmeister: Systematic overview of the animals of Brazil. (Berlin 1854–1856; 3 volumes) doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.13607
- ^ A b c d Robert S. Voss, David W. Fleck and Sharon A. Jansa: Mammalian Diversity and Matses Ethnomammalogy in Amazonian Peru Part 3: Marsupials (Didelphimorphia). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 2019 (432): 1-90. doi: 10.1206 / 0003-0090.432.1.1 , pages 61-68.
- ↑ a b Patton, JL and LP Costa. 2003. Molecular phylogeography and species limits in rainforest didelphid marsupials of South America. Page 66 and 68 in ME Jones, CR Dickman and M. Archer (editors), Predators with pouches: the biology of carnivorous marsupials. 63-81. Melbourne: CSIRO Press.
- ↑ Metachirus nudicaudatus in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species .