Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Rodentia > Nesomyidae > Cricetomys > Cricetomys gambianus

Cricetomys gambianus (Gambian rat)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys gambianus), also known as the African giant pouched rat, is a nocturnal pouched rat of the giant pouched rat genus Cricetomys, and is among the largest muroids in the world, growing up to about 0.9 metres (3 ft) long including their tail which makes up half their length. It is widespread in Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging geographically from Senegal to Kenya and from Angola to Mozambique (although it is absent from much of the DR Congo, where Emin's pouched rat is present) and in altitude from sea level to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).
View Wikipedia Record: Cricetomys gambianus

Invasive Species

View ISSG Record: Cricetomys gambianus

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]  3.307 lbs (1.50 kg)
Birth Weight [1]  26 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Granivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  30 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  40 %
Diet - Plants [2]  10 %
Diet - Seeds [2]  20 %
Forages - Ground [2]  100 %
Female Maturity [1]  5 months 8 days
Gestation [1]  34 days
Litter Size [1]  4
Litters / Year [1]  4
Maximum Longevity [1]  8 years
Nocturnal [3]  Yes
Snout to Vent Length [4]  16 inches (41 cm)
Weaning [1]  31 days

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania No
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
Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland No

Prey / Diet

Predators

Bitis gabonica (Gaboon Adder)[6]

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
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Nathan 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
♦ 5Jorrit 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.
♦ 6Conservation Biology of the Gaboon Adder (Bitis gabonica) in South Africa, Jonathan Kirk Warner, A dissertation submitted to the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Science (2009)
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
♦ 8International 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