Zeledon's dwarf pouch rat
| Zeledon's dwarf pouch rat | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Marmosa zeledoni | ||||||||||||
| Goldman , 1911 |
Zeledon's pygmy rat ( Marmosa zeledoni ) is a species of marsupial that occurs in Nicaragua , Costa Rica and Panama , as well as in two small areas isolated from each other and from the rest of the population in the Departamento de Nariño and in Valle del Cauca in western, coastal Colombia.
description
The animals reach a head trunk length of 12 to 16.2 (males) or 11.9 to 14.5 cm (females), have a length of 14.5 to 21 (males) and 14.9 to 19.7 cm (females) ) long tail and reach a weight of 28 to 100 g. The tail is thus on average around 28% longer than the head and torso combined. The fur on the back and the top of the head are dark reddish-brown, the sides of the body are slightly lighter than the back. Older animals get a gray-brown coat that is interspersed with reddish-brown hair. The middle of the snout is lighter than the top of the head, but does not contrast particularly clearly with it. Around the black eyes there are blackish-brown to blackish circles under the eyes that do not reach the bases of the ears. The fur on the underside from the chin to the anus, the sides of the neck and the inside of the front and rear legs are reddish or brownish. A yellowish or orange stripe of fur runs from the chin to the anus. The front feet are red-brown, the hind feet are red-brown to light brown. The 10% of the tail, which is close to the body, is hairy, the rest is hairless. The bare tail section is dark brown and sometimes lighter on the underside than on the top. Females do not have a pouch. The number of teats is nine or eleven, four or five on each side and one in the middle. The karyotype of the animals is so far unknown.
Habitat and way of life
Zeledon's pygmy bag rat lives in lowland and mountain rainforests from sea level to altitudes of 100 to 2200 meters. It is more common at higher altitudes in its range than further down. Their diet in the wild has not yet been studied. Animals kept in human care ate moths, worms, fruit, and the entrails of mice and birds. So far it is not known about their activity patterns and reproductive behavior. One specimen was caught in a bird's nest while she was taking possession of it.
status
Zeledon's pygmy sac rat has not yet been recorded separately by the IUCN , since its populations have been assigned to the Mexican pygmy rat ( Marmosa mexicana ) without being considered an independent subspecies and only became an independent species again in 2010 as part of a revision of the genus Marmosa .
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d Diego Astúa: Family Didelphidae (Opossums). 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 , p. 138.
- ↑ Rogério V. Rossi, Robert S. Voss, Darrin P. Lunde: A Revision of the Didelphid Marsupial Genus Marmosa Part 1. The Species in Tate's 'Mexicana' and 'Mitis' Sections and Other Closely Related Forms. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 82 (11): 1-83 (2010). doi: 10.1206 / 334.1