For scientists have identified one of the largest species in the world – and it can crack open coconuts with its bare teeth.
The giant rat – named Uromys vika – is a foot-and-a-half long and weighs up to two pounds. It nests up to 30ft high in trees in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
However only one has been found, and it died shortly after capture. The animal is more than four times the size of British black rats, which grow no more than ten inches long.
Its existence has long been suspected, with islanders passing on stories of it cracking open coconuts.
Dr. Tyrone Lavery, from the Field Museum in Chicago, who discovered the rat, said: ‘The new species, Uromys vika, is pretty spectacular - it’s a big, giant rat.
‘It’s the first rat discovered in 80 years from Solomons, and it’s not like people haven’t been trying - it was just so hard to find.’
It is brown-haired, with wide hind feet and curved claws. Careful study of the skull, as well as DNA analysis, confirmed it was a new species in the genus of “mosaic tailed rats” or Uromys, which Lavery named Uromys vika, after the traditional name for the rat.
The specimen they found, although missing some of its tail, was estimated to be over 45cm long and weighing more than half a kilogram.
The giant rat – named Uromys vika – is a foot-and-a-half long and weighs up to two pounds. It nests up to 30ft high in trees in the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific.
However only one has been found, and it died shortly after capture. The animal is more than four times the size of British black rats, which grow no more than ten inches long.
Its existence has long been suspected, with islanders passing on stories of it cracking open coconuts.
Dr. Tyrone Lavery, from the Field Museum in Chicago, who discovered the rat, said: ‘The new species, Uromys vika, is pretty spectacular - it’s a big, giant rat.
‘It’s the first rat discovered in 80 years from Solomons, and it’s not like people haven’t been trying - it was just so hard to find.’
It is brown-haired, with wide hind feet and curved claws. Careful study of the skull, as well as DNA analysis, confirmed it was a new species in the genus of “mosaic tailed rats” or Uromys, which Lavery named Uromys vika, after the traditional name for the rat.
The specimen they found, although missing some of its tail, was estimated to be over 45cm long and weighing more than half a kilogram.
Its hairless tail is at least as long as its body and it nests high up in the kapuchu trees of Vangunu in the Solomon Islands, having probably reached its home by swimming from the mainland.
The rat’s existence has been suspected for at least two decades, with people who live on the island passing on stories of it cracking open coconut shells.
That has not yet been confirmed, but evidence has been found that the rat breaks into another very thick-shelled nut called the ngali, chewing circular holes to reach the inside.
The rat’s existence has been suspected for at least two decades, with people who live on the island passing on stories of it cracking open coconut shells.
That has not yet been confirmed, but evidence has been found that the rat breaks into another very thick-shelled nut called the ngali, chewing circular holes to reach the inside.
Music: "River of Io" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Source: Daily Mail , Guardian, Nat Geo
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