The white-tailed rat (''Mystromys albicaudatus'') also known as the white-tailed mouse, is the only member of the subfamily Mystromyinae in the family

Nesomyidae The Nesomyidae are a family of African rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes several subfamilies, all of which are native to either continental Africa or to Madagascar. Included in this family are Malagasy rodents, ...

. This species is sometimes placed in the subfamily Cricetinae due to similarities in appearance between the white-tailed rat and

hamster Hamsters are rodents (order Rodentia) belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae, which contains 19 species classified in seven genera.Fox, Sue. 2006. ''Hamsters''. T.F.H. Publications Inc. They have become established as popular small pets. The ...

s, but molecular phylogenetic studies have confirmed that the two groups are not closely related. The subfamily Mystromyinae is sometimes placed within the family Muridae along with all other subfamilies of muroids. The white-tailed rat is restricted to shrubby areas and grasslands of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

and Lesotho. This is an uncommon species, and populations are thought to be declining because of conversion of scrubland to pasture. The

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of nat ...

has rated it as being an "

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

Description

The white-tailed rat is a fairly large species with a head-and-body length of for males and for females, with a short tail of about . The fur is soft, woolly and dense. The head is broad, and the face is mostly grey, with pale spots above the eye and behind the ear in some individuals. The whiskers are long and the ear is rounded and dark-coloured. The upper parts of head and body are greyish-brown flecked with buff; each hair has a grey base and shaft, and a buff or blackish tip. The underparts are whitish-grey, each individual hair having a grey base and shaft and a cream or whitish tip. The tail is colourless and is clad in short white fur. The fore feet have four digits and the hind feet five. The upper surfaces of the fore feet have white hair, as do the sides and upper surfaces of the hind feet.

Distribution and habitat

The white-tailed 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 South Africa and Lesotho where it is found in grasslands and shrubby areas. It tends to inhabit burrows of

meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

s and cracks in the soil during the day and venture out at night. It eats vegetable matter such as seeds and has been known to take insects. The stomach has a ruminant-like digestive action and there are bacteria in the hind gut that ferment the food. Unlike

s, white-tailed rats do not have

cheek pouch Cheek pouches are pockets on both sides of the head of some mammals between the jaw and the cheek. They can be found on mammals including the platypus, some rodents, and most monkeys, as well as the marsupial koala. The cheek pouches of chipmunks ...

es.

References

*Nowak, R. M. 1999. Walker's

Mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

s of the World, Vol. 2. Johns Hopkins University Press, London. {{Taxonbar, from=Q74648 Nesomyid rodents Mammals described in 1834