13 August 2014

Indonesian Rat ID help

These photos are a few years old, I’ve been meaning to ask for ID confirmation/help on them.

This was suggested to be Niviventer fulvescens, from Pangandaran NP, Java,any thoughts?
Pangandaran 2

Is this just a Norway Rat? Way Kembas, Sumatra
Way Kembas

I’ve never even guessed what this one is, Baluran NP, Java.
Baluran A 2

Any help is much appreciated, Thanks,

Curtis

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7 Comments

  • 15 August 2014
    vdinets

    The first one sure looks like a Niviventer, but I don’t remember how to tell N. lepturus from N. fulvescens. What was the elevation?

    The second one is too long-tailed for Rattus norvegicus. I’d say R. tiomanicus.

    The third one could be Pitecheir melanurus, I guess. Do you remember how big it was and how long the tail was?

  • 16 August 2014
    cmh78

    The first one was basically at sea level.

    I thought the second looked a little off, and it was a long ways from anything but 3 buildings in the jungle.

    The third was maybe 6″ head and body length.

    What do you use as a resource for looking up Indonesian rats?

    • 16 August 2014
      vdinets

      I don’t have any resource at the moment, just memory, that’s the problem 🙂 I think N. fulvescens is the one to be expected at low elevations, but I might be wrong. 6″ is within range for Pithecheir, but I just googled P. melanurus and it appears to be a very rare species.

      • 18 August 2014
        cmh78

        What are the books you would use? I haven’t even been able to find a species list for Java.

        • 18 August 2014
          vdinets

          You can start by compiling a list from, say, Walker’s Mammals of the World (be sure to get the last edition). There are field guides to mammals of Borneo and southeast Asia; if you combine them, you’ll have only Javan endemics left – look them up one by one online.

  • 19 August 2014
    cmh78

    That’ll be quite the project to start on when I get back to my references. Thanks for the help and the suggestion. For some reason, I never think of using Mammals of Borneo, even though it is quite close..

  • 2 June 2015
    Jon Hall

    Curtis, the third one looks like it might be Rattus tiomanicus. They do climb and we caught several in Sumatra.

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