Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Octodontidae > Octomys > Octomys mimax

Octomys mimax (viscacha rat)

Wikipedia Abstract

The viscacha rat (Octomys mimax), or mountain viscacha rat, is a species of rodent in the family Octodontidae. It is endemic to Chile and Argentina. It is the only living species within the genus Octomys. This diploid genus (2n = 56) may be ancestral to the two unusual tetraploid species Tympanoctomys barrerae and Pipanacoctomys aureus.
View Wikipedia Record: Octomys mimax

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
15
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
41
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 29.35
EDGE Score: 3.41
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  131 grams
Diet [2]  Herbivore
Diet - Plants [2]  100 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Nocturnal [2]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [3]  7 inches (17 cm)

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Central Andean puna Argentina, Bolivia, Peru Neotropic Montane Grasslands and Shrublands
High Monte Argentina Neotropic Deserts and Xeric Shrublands  
Southern Andean steppe Argentina, Chile Neotropic Montane Grasslands and Shrublands

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Ischigualasto / Talampaya Natural Parks World Heritage Site 680452 Argentina  
Valle Fértil Nature Park 1976843 San Juan, Argentina      

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Tropical Andes Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela No

Prey / Diet

Atamisquea emarginata (atamisquea)[4]
Cressa nudicaulis (nakedstem alkaliweed)[4]
Larrea cuneifolia[4]
Tricerma viscifolium[4]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Eligmodontia moreni (Monte gerbil mouse)1
Microcavia australis (southern mountain cavy)2
Poospiza ornata (Cinnamon Warbling Finch)1
Tympanoctomys barrerae (plains viscacha rat)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Delostichus incisus[5]
Delostichus octomyos[5]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Felisa A. Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, S. K. Morgan Ernest, Kate E. Jones, Dawn M. Kaufman, Tamar Dayan, Pablo A. Marquet, James H. Brown, and John P. Haskell. 2003. Body mass of late Quaternary mammals. Ecology 84:3403
♦ 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
♦ 4Octomys mimax (Rodentia: Octodontidae), RAUL SOBRERO, VALERIA E. CAMPOS, STELLA M. GIANNONI, AND LUIS A. EBENSPERGER, MAMMALIAN SPECIES 42(853):49–57 (2010)
♦ 5International 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