Rodents from Ethiopia – request for id help.
Looking at trip reports, the first one of these from the Bale mountains is likely to be Blick’s grassrat, the second – from the Simien mountains Chenek camp – may well be Abyssinian grass rat. But I’m going on what people report rather than a real knowledge of field characteristics. If anyone with a better knowledge could confirm or correct the identification I’d be grateful.
The third is from Tim and Kim Village, Gorgora and I have no idea.
Any help much appreciated.
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Chris Roche
Hi Steve – my understanding is that there are two high altitude Arvicanthis species found in Ethiopia. A blicki is restricted to the extended Bale Mountains, while A abyssinicus is the equivalent north of the rift (and thus the Simiens).
If you are on Facebook and happy to share your images please have a look at http://www.facebook.com/EthiopiaMammalAtlas
The idea with this page is to have a photographic record of mammals found in each of the national parks or other frequently visited areas which people can use to help identify what they see.