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 n ...
in the family
Muridae. 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 ...
is
subtropical or tropical dry forest.
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 else ...
to the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Its range includes the
Owen Stanley Range,
Mount Dayman,
Mount Sisa, 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