Bannister's rat, or great Key Island mosaic-tailed rat, or great Key Island melomys
or great Kai Island melomys
(''Melomys bannisteri'') is a species of rodent of the genus
Melomys
''Melomys'' is a genus of rodents in the family Muridae. Members of this genus live in the wet habitats of northern Australia ( Far North Queensland), New Guinea, Torres Strait Islands and islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Species
The ge ...
. It is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to the
Kai Besar, one of the islands which are part of the
Maluku Islands
The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located eas ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
.
References
Melomys
Mammals of Indonesia
Mammals described in 1993
Taxa named by Darrell Kitchener
{{Murinae-stub