Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Octodontidae > Octodon > Octodon degus

Octodon degus (Degus)

Synonyms: Sciurus degus

Wikipedia Abstract

The degu (Octodon degus, /ˈdeɪɡuː/) is a small caviomorph rodent endemic to the Chilean matorral ecoregion of central Chile. It is sometimes referred to as the brush-tailed rat, and is also called the common degu, to distinguish it from the other members of the genus Octodon. Other members are also called degus, but they are distinguished by additional names. The name "degu" on its own, however, indicates either the genus Octodon or, more usually, O. degus. Degus are in the parvorder Caviomorpha of the infraorder Hystricognathi, along with the chinchilla and guinea pig. The word degu comes from the Mapudungun dewü (mouse, rat).
View Wikipedia Record: Octodon degus

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
9
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
34
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 18.06
EDGE Score: 2.95
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  235 grams
Birth Weight [1]  14 grams
Diet [2]  Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  20 %
Diet - Plants [2]  60 %
Diet - Seeds [2]  20 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  6 months 2 days
Male Maturity [1]  6 months 2 days
Gestation [1]  90 days
Litter Size [1]  6
Litters / Year [1]  2
Maximum Longevity [1]  14 years
Snout to Vent Length [3]  9 inches (24 cm)
Weaning [1]  36 days

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Chilean matorral Chile Neotropic Mediterranean Forests, Woodlands, and Scrub

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Parque Nacional Fray Jorge National Park II 22266 Coquimbo, Chile  

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests Chile Yes

Prey / Diet

Cestrum parqui (Chilean jessamine)[4]
Erodium cicutarium (redstem)[4]
Myrcianthes coquimbensis[5]
Proustia cuneifolia[4]
Vachellia caven (Roman-cassie)[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Predators

Consumers

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 4Octodon degus, Charles A. Woods and David K. Boraker, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 67, pp. 1-5 (1975)
♦ 5Loayza, Andrea et al. (2017), Data from: Fruit size determines the role of three scatter-hoarding rodents as dispersers or seed predators of a fleshy-fruited Atacama Desert shrub, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.13pb4
♦ 6Predation upon small mammals in shrublands and grasslands of southern South America: ecological correlates and presumable consequences, Fabian M. Jaksic, Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 59: 209-221 (1986)
♦ 7Galictis cuja, Eric Yensen and Teresa Tarifa, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 728, pp. 1–8 (2003)
♦ 8Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 9International Flea Database
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0