Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Muridae > Rattus > Rattus nativitatis

Rattus nativitatis (bulldog rat)

Synonyms: Mus nativitatis

Wikipedia Abstract

The bulldog rat (Rattus nativitatis) was a species of rat endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. The rats lived on the higher hills and denser forests of the island. They had short tails and their backs were covered in a two centimetre thick layer of fat. They lived in small colonies, in burrows among the roots of trees or under hollow logs in primary forest. They were sluggish and never climbed and may have seemed half-dazed in daylight. The last record dates from 1903. They may have succumbed to a disease brought by black rats that had been inadvertently introduced by sailors.
View Wikipedia Record: Rattus nativitatis

Endangered Species

Status: Extinct
View IUCN Record: Rattus nativitatis

Attributes

Diet [1]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [1]  20 %
Diet - Invertibrates [1]  30 %
Diet - Plants [1]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [1]  40 %
Forages - Ground [1]  100 %
Nocturnal [1]  Yes

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Christmas Island National Park II 21698 Christmas Island, Australia

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1Hamish 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
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