UNMASKING THE MOONRAT – A HAIRY HEDGEHOG THE SIZE OF A CAT!
by admin on Sep.20, 2012, under Syndicated from the Web
Reposted from ShukerNature | Go to Original Post
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The nominate black-furred subspecies, E. g. gymnura, of the moonrat (Constance Warner) |
As a child, animals with unusual names always held an intense fascination for me. So it was inevitable that I would want to learn more about the moonrat!
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Moonrat postage stamp, Malaysia 2008 |
With a head and body length of 13-16 in, a tail of 8-12 in, and weighing up to 2.75 lb, the moonrat looks very like a gigantic rat – a rat wearing a black mask, and as big as a domestic cat! (In Borneo, moonrats lack the mask because here, uniquely, they are predominantly white all over in colour.) It even occupies a similar ecological niche to true rats. Taxonomically, however, this deceptive animal is something very different, because its closest relatives are not the rodents but the hedgehogs.
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The moonrat’s very distinctive, predominantly white Bornean subspecies, E. g. alba (FactZoo.com) |
The moonrat’s external appearance has some other surprises too. Its very lengthy, mobile snout is plentifully supplied with exceptionally long, bristly whiskers – as are its eyebrows. These whiskers are extremely sensitive to touch, and probably help the moonrat to gauge in the dark whether it is thin enough to pick its way through tight crevices while active at night. Also assisting it do this is the remarkable shape of its body, which although looking very burly from the side, is actually surprisingly narrow, allowing it to squeeze through gaps that seem scarcely wide enough to let it pass. So too do its very short legs.
Moonrat (D. Kirshner) |
One peculiar thing that we do know about its wild habits, however, is that when the female moonrat makes a nest in which she subsequently gives birth to two babies, the fluid that she secretes from a pair of glands under her tail to mark the nest’s entrance possesses a strong ammonia content and has a potent smell that closely resembles rotten onions or garlic! (The male also secretes this same fluid when marking his territory.) So even if our eyes are unsuccessful in catching sight of moonrats, our nose should have far less trouble locating their nests!
There is also a Los Angeles-based rock group called The Moonrats, but I’m unsure whether their name was gymnure-inspired, or just inspired!
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Sheet of moonrat-depicting postage stamps issued by Malaysia in 2008 |
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