Pacific rat
| Pacific rat | ||||||||||||
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Pacific rat ( Rattus exulans ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Rattus exulans | ||||||||||||
| ( Peale , 1848) |
The Pacific rat ( Rattus exulans , also known as the small Pacific rat ) is a rodent; it is the smallest of the following species from the genus of rats ( Rattus ). Your Maori name is kiore .
features
Compared to the other rats, it has a shorter body, a more pointed snout, larger ears and always a brown fur. Adult animals are 11.5 to 15 cm long from the tip of the snout to the base of the tail and weigh 40 to 80 g. The tail has numerous fine rings and is about as long as the body.
Way of life
The Pacific rat can cope with numerous habitats such as steppe, rocky land, and forest. She can easily climb trees where she can always find something to eat, but she is not a good swimmer. The Pacific rat, like the brown rat and the house rat , is crepuscular.
nutrition
The Pacific rat feeds mainly on grains like rice and corn , sugar cane , coconut, cocoa, and pineapple .
Reproduction
Four to nine animals are brought into the world per litter, four litters per year are common.
history
The Pacific rat was believed to have spread to Oceania as the Lapita culture spread.
Studies of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the Pacific rat show that the spread presumably originated from Indonesia ( Halmahera ) through humans and from here reached Micronesia , Fiji , Vanuatu and New Zealand . Since the Pacific rat does not cross with the European rat, such studies are easier and more meaningful to conduct in this animal than in dogs or humans.
For example, recent radiocarbon dating of the bones of the Pacific rat, which was only able to get to New Zealand as a human companion, date the earliest possible settlement of New Zealand by Māori to the year 1280.
The Pacific rat was probably used as a meat supplier by the early settlers. Today it is widespread throughout Southeast Asia and Polynesia, where it is often kept as a pet or at least as a food supplier. Their meat is described as very tasty.
Harmful effect
The spread of the Pacific Rat (among other factors) caused severe damage to the fragile ecosystems of the Pacific Islands. In their native fauna , ground-breeding bird species were particularly affected. Together with overhunting by humans, this led to their extinction. With the beginning of the Lapita culture, the biological diversity of most of the islands is radically reduced.
The brown rat ( R. norvegicus ), later introduced by Europeans, caused further damage .
literature
- MJ Grope: Rat DNA and Human Migration in the Pacific. In: Current Anthropology . Vol. 46, No. 2, April 2005, pp. 159-160, doi : 10.1086 / 428786 .
Individual evidence
Web links
- Pacific rat
- Rattus exulans in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Baillie, J., 1996. Retrieved on 12 May, 2006.