Nitrometan
2009-09-08, 07:30
Världsrekord! 82 cm råtta!
Vid vulkanen Bosavi har ett filmteam från BBC hittat en jätteråtta.
En hittills oupptäckt art.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8210000/8210394.stm
Film finns på "BBC Earth News" sida (länkad ovan).
The rat, which has no fear of humans, measures 82cm long, placing it among the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.
The creature, which has not yet been formally described, was discovered by an expedition team filming the BBC programme Lost Land of the Volcano.
It is one of a number of exotic animals found by the expedition team.
Like the other exotic species, the rat is believed to live within the Mount Bosavi crater, and nowhere else.
"This is one of the world's largest rats. It is a true rat, the same kind you find in the city sewers," says Dr Kristofer Helgen, a mammalogist based at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who accompanied the BBC expedition team.
The trapped rat measured 82cm in length from its nose to its tail, and weighed approximately 1.5kg.
It had a silver-brown coat of thick long fur, which the scientists who examined it believe may help it survive the wet and cold conditions that can occur within the high volcano crater. The location where the rat was discovered lies at an elevation of over 1,000m.
Initial investigations suggest the rat belongs to the genus Mallomys, which contains a handful of other out-sized species.
It has provisionally been called the Bosavi woolly rat, while its scientific name has yet to be agreed.
Kul för de som gillar råttor. ;)
Roligt också att man ännu inte har beskrivit alla arter i världen.
Vid vulkanen Bosavi har ett filmteam från BBC hittat en jätteråtta.
En hittills oupptäckt art.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8210000/8210394.stm
Film finns på "BBC Earth News" sida (länkad ovan).
The rat, which has no fear of humans, measures 82cm long, placing it among the largest species of rat known anywhere in the world.
The creature, which has not yet been formally described, was discovered by an expedition team filming the BBC programme Lost Land of the Volcano.
It is one of a number of exotic animals found by the expedition team.
Like the other exotic species, the rat is believed to live within the Mount Bosavi crater, and nowhere else.
"This is one of the world's largest rats. It is a true rat, the same kind you find in the city sewers," says Dr Kristofer Helgen, a mammalogist based at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History who accompanied the BBC expedition team.
The trapped rat measured 82cm in length from its nose to its tail, and weighed approximately 1.5kg.
It had a silver-brown coat of thick long fur, which the scientists who examined it believe may help it survive the wet and cold conditions that can occur within the high volcano crater. The location where the rat was discovered lies at an elevation of over 1,000m.
Initial investigations suggest the rat belongs to the genus Mallomys, which contains a handful of other out-sized species.
It has provisionally been called the Bosavi woolly rat, while its scientific name has yet to be agreed.
Kul för de som gillar råttor. ;)
Roligt också att man ännu inte har beskrivit alla arter i världen.