Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Nesomyidae > Cricetomys > Cricetomys emini

Cricetomys emini (giant rat)

Synonyms: Cricetomys gambianus liberiae; Cricetomys gambianus poensis

Wikipedia Abstract

Emin's pouched rat (Cricetomys emini), also known as the African pouched rat, is a large rat of the muroid superfamily. It is related to Cricetomys gambianus, the Gambian pouched rat. They are native to Africa and are found along the edges of forests and along the plains. Emin's rats are actually better climbers than their better known Gambian pouched rat cousins. These pouched rats are named for having cheek pouches much like a hamster. Emin's rat and the Gambian rat have a few very noticeable physical differences:
View Wikipedia Record: Cricetomys emini

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
7
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
32
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 15.75
EDGE Score: 2.82
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  2.866 lbs (1.30 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  23 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [3]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  40 %
Diet - Plants [3]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [3]  20 %
Forages - Ground [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  5 months 12 days
Gestation [2]  34 days
Litter Size [1]  1
Litters / Year [2]  4
Maximum Longevity [1]  7 years
Nocturnal [3]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [2]  16 inches (41 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Eastern Afromontane Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Uganda, Yemen, Zimbabwe No
Guinean Forests of West Africa Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo No

Prey / Diet

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Calodium hepaticum[5]
Proenderleinellus calva[4]

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
♦ 2Nathan 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
♦ 3Hamish 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
♦ 4Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 5Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
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