The long-footed water rat (''Leptomys elegans'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

in the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae come ...

. It is found in the mountains of southern

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

subtropical or tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

Distribution and habitat

The long-footed water rat 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 eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Its range includes the

Owen Stanley Range Owen Stanley Range is the south-eastern part of the central mountain-chain in Papua New Guinea. Its highest point is Mount Victoria at , while its most prominent peak is Mount Suckling. History Owen Stanley Range was seen in 1849 by Captain Owe ...

, Mount Dayman,

Mount Sisa Mt. Sisa is a heavily eroded Pleistocene stratovolcano in Hela, Papua New Guinea. The taller of the mountain's two main peaks is estimated to be high. The northern peak has a communications mast. The epicentre of the 2018 Papua New Guinea earthqu ...

, and Mount Victory in Papua New Guinea, and its altitudinal range extends from . Relatively few specimens of this rat have been observed, and its habitat includes secondary forest and old gardens, and it is presumed to be also present in primary forest.

Status

No particular threats are known for this species. It is sometimes hunted, presumably for food, but this is unlikely to be of much significance to the species. Previously classified as " critically endangered", the long-footed water rat has been found to have a much wider distribution and to be more plentiful than was once thought and has been reclassified as "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

* Leptomys Rats of Asia Endemic fauna of Papua New Guinea Rodents of Papua New Guinea Mammals described in 1897 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Rodents of New Guinea {{Murinae-stub