Mount Kenya Grammomys
Grammomys gigas (Dollman, 1911)
Also calledGrammomys géant (fra) · Mount-Kenya-Akazienmaus (deu)
First described in: Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8 vol.7 p.527
The giant thicket rat (Grammomys gigas) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae which is restricted to a small area of Kenya.
Descriptions from checklists and floras indexed by GBIF
discussion
Discussion: Recorded only by the holotype. Recognized as a species in most lists (G. M. Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941). Hutterer and Dieterlen (1984) insisted the species has to be recognized because of its large teeth, an opinion we share derived from our study of the holotype; but the possibility that it is simply a large individual of G. ibeanus is a hypothesis worth testing.
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
discussion
COMMENTS: Recorded only by the holotype. Recognized as a species in most lists (Allen, 1939; Ellerman, 1941). Hutterer and Dieterlen (1984) insisted the species has to be recognized because of its large teeth, an opinion we share based on our study of the holotype; but the possibility that it may simply be a large individual of G. ibeanus is a hypothesis that deserves testing.
Order Rodentia - Family Muridae
activity
Activity patterns. Mount Kenya Thicket Rats are presumably nocturnal and arboreal.
Muridae
biology_ecology
Movements, Home range and Social organization. No information.
Muridae
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
The giant thicket rat is a slender arboreal rat with large, ovoid ears with a rather long and fine coat. It is very similar to Grammomys ibeanus but has larger teeth, longer rear feet and a larger head. The head-body length is 132 mm (5.2 in), tail length 201 mm (7.9 in), the rear foot has a length of 26.5 mm (1.0 in), the ear is 19 mm (0.7 in) long and skull 35.1 mm (1.4 in).
Range & habitat
The giant thicket rat is endemic to Kenya, where it is restricted to the vicinity of Mount Kenya.
What it does
The giant thicket rat is an arboreal species which is found in montane moist forest and high-elevation scrub. Species of the genus Grammomys feed on fruit, seeds and other plant matter, they occasionally eat arthropods.
Where it has been recorded
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Grammomys gigas in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
From the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and occurrence records (GBIF.org), with Wikipedia and the Source Library. GBIF species 2439205.