Gambian pouched rat
Encyclopedia
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. It is among the largest muroid
s 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 2000 metres (6,561.7 ft).
and hearing
. Its name comes from the large, hamster
-like pouches in its cheeks. It is not a true rat
but is part of a uniquely African branch of muroid rodents. It typically weighs between 1 and 1.4 kg (2.2 and 3.1 lb). In its native Africa, this pouched rat lives in colonies of up to twenty, usually in forests and thickets, but also commonly in termite
mounds. It is omnivorous
, feeding on vegetable
s, insect
s, crab
s, snail
s, and other items, but apparently preferring palm
fruit
s and palm kernels.
Unlike domestic rats
, it has cheek pouches like a hamster. These cheek pouches allow it to gather up several kilograms of nuts per night for storage underground. It has been known to stuff its pouches so full of date palm
nuts so as to be hardly able to squeeze through the entrance of its burrow. The burrow consists of a long passage with side alleys and several chambers, one for sleeping and the others for storage. The Gambian pouched rat reaches sexual maturity
at 5–7 months of age. It has up to four litters every nine months, with up to six offspring in each litter. Males are territorial and tend to be aggressive when they encounter one another; otherwise, this rodent is extremely friendly and has become popular as an exotic pet
. It is intelligent, social and can be very gentle if handled from an early age. However, feral subjects have been known to attack humans living in cramped conditions.
In Africa, it is routinely eaten as bushmeat
.
on Grassy Key
in the Florida Keys
.
This outsized African rodent is also believed to be responsible for the current outbreak of monkeypox
in the United States
. In 2003, the United States' CDC
and FDA
issued an order preventing the importation of the rodents following the first reported outbreak of monkeypox. Around 20 individuals were affected. Several African species are believed to carry the disease.
In September 2008, the FDA
and CDC
lifted the ban on pouched rats as pets in the United States
. They are still illegal to import from outside the U.S.
, trains Gambian pouched rats to detect land mine
s and tuberculosis
with their highly developed sense of smell. The trained pouched rats are called HeroRATS.
Pouched rat
Pouched rats are a group of African rodents in the subfamily Cricetomyinae. They are members of the family Nesomyidae, which contains other African muroids such as climbing mice, Malagasy mice, and the white-tailed rat. All nesomyids are in the superfamily Muroidea, a large and complex clade...
of the giant pouched rat
Giant pouched rat
The giant pouched rats of sub-Saharan Africa are large muroid rodents. Their head and body length ranges from 25–45 cm with scaly tails ranging from 36–46 cm...
genus
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
Cricetomys. It is among the largest muroid
Muroidea
Muroidea is a large superfamily of rodents. It includes hamsters, gerbils, true mice and rats, and many other relatives. They occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to...
s 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
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
, ranging geographically from Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
to Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
and from Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
to Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
(although it is absent from much of the DR Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
, where Emin's pouched rat is present) and in altitude from sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
to 2000 metres (6,561.7 ft).
Characteristics
The Gambian pouched rat has very poor eyesight and so depends on its senses of smellOlfaction
Olfaction is the sense of smell. This sense is mediated by specialized sensory cells of the nasal cavity of vertebrates, and, by analogy, sensory cells of the antennae of invertebrates...
and hearing
Hearing (sense)
Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations through an organ such as the ear. It is one of the traditional five senses...
. Its name comes from the large, hamster
Hamster
Hamsters are rodents belonging to the subfamily Cricetinae. The subfamily contains about 25 species, classified in six or seven genera....
-like pouches in its cheeks. It is not a true rat
Rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents of the superfamily Muroidea. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, Rattus norvegicus...
but is part of a uniquely African branch of muroid rodents. It typically weighs between 1 and 1.4 kg (2.2 and 3.1 lb). In its native Africa, this pouched rat lives in colonies of up to twenty, usually in forests and thickets, but also commonly in termite
Termite
Termites are a group of eusocial insects that, until recently, were classified at the taxonomic rank of order Isoptera , but are now accepted as the epifamily Termitoidae, of the cockroach order Blattodea...
mounds. It is omnivorous
Omnivore
Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...
, feeding on vegetable
Vegetable
The noun vegetable usually means an edible plant or part of a plant other than a sweet fruit or seed. This typically means the leaf, stem, or root of a plant....
s, insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, crab
Crab
True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...
s, snail
Snail
Snail is a common name applied to most of the members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells in the adult stage. When the word is used in its most general sense, it includes sea snails, land snails and freshwater snails. The word snail without any qualifier is however more often...
s, and other items, but apparently preferring palm
Arecaceae
Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...
fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s and palm kernels.
Unlike domestic rats
Fancy rat
The fancy rat is a domesticated brown rat , which is the most common type of pet rat. The name fancy rat derives from the idea of animal fancy or the phrase "to fancy" ....
, it has cheek pouches like a hamster. These cheek pouches allow it to gather up several kilograms of nuts per night for storage underground. It has been known to stuff its pouches so full of date palm
Date Palm
The date palm is a palm in the genus Phoenix, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around the Persian Gulf. It is a medium-sized plant, 15–25 m tall, growing singly or forming a clump with...
nuts so as to be hardly able to squeeze through the entrance of its burrow. The burrow consists of a long passage with side alleys and several chambers, one for sleeping and the others for storage. The Gambian pouched rat reaches sexual maturity
Sexual maturity
Sexual maturity is the age or stage when an organism can reproduce. It is sometimes considered synonymous with adulthood, though the two are distinct...
at 5–7 months of age. It has up to four litters every nine months, with up to six offspring in each litter. Males are territorial and tend to be aggressive when they encounter one another; otherwise, this rodent is extremely friendly and has become popular as an exotic pet
Exotic pet
An exotic pet is a rare or unusual animal pet, or an animal kept as a pet which is not commonly thought of as a pet.The definition is an evolving one; some rodents, reptiles, and amphibians have become firmly enough established in the world of animal fancy to no longer be considered exotic...
. It is intelligent, social and can be very gentle if handled from an early age. However, feral subjects have been known to attack humans living in cramped conditions.
In Africa, it is routinely eaten as bushmeat
Bushmeat
Bushmeat initially referred to the hunting of wild animals in West and Central Africa and is a calque from the French viande de brousse. Today the term is commonly used for meat of terrestrial wild animals, killed for subsistence or commercial purposes throughout the humid tropics of the Americas,...
.
Invasive threat
Currently, these rats have become an invasive speciesInvasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
on Grassy Key
Grassy Key
Grassy Key, Florida is an island in the middle Florida Keys.It is located on U.S. 1 , at approximately mile markers 57—60, below the Conch Keys. It has an area of 3.65 km², with a population of 974 as of the census 2000....
in the Florida Keys
Florida Keys
The Florida Keys are a coral archipelago in southeast United States. They begin at the southeastern tip of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry...
.
This outsized African rodent is also believed to be responsible for the current outbreak of monkeypox
Monkeypox
Monkeypox also known as cockpox is an exotic infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus. The disease was first identified in laboratory monkeys, hence its name, but in its natural state it seems to infect rodents more often than primates...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 2003, the United States' CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
and FDA
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
issued an order preventing the importation of the rodents following the first reported outbreak of monkeypox. Around 20 individuals were affected. Several African species are believed to carry the disease.
In September 2008, the FDA
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...
and CDC
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
lifted the ban on pouched rats as pets in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. They are still illegal to import from outside the U.S.
Ability to detect land mines and tuberculosis by scent
A Tanzanian social enterprise founded by two Belgians called APOPOAPOPO
APOPO, an acronym for Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende ProductOntwikkeling , is a registered Belgian NGO which trains African giant pouched rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. APOPO's mission is to develop detection rats technology to provide solutions for global problems and inspire positive...
, trains Gambian pouched rats to detect land mine
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
s and tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
with their highly developed sense of smell. The trained pouched rats are called HeroRATS.