Rattus rattus alexandrinus
posted 03/19/14 - Here's another dead animal to add to my virtual collection. I'll take it. I just noticed most of my dead animal finds have been mammals and snakes. Hey, it's the only time I seem to get any pictures of them. I'm not very good with their IDs and often have to ask for help. I try to spread my queries around so as not to pester any one person too
much, because everyone's busy and my blog is not that important. In my zeal to double-check my facts as I always do, I ended up being a bit ratty myself. Eventually, it was passed among a couple big-wig Mammalogists, so I am confident of this expert ID. I'd quote the e-mails, but I didn't ask for permission, so I won't. Sorry, all.
There were two other possible IDs: the native dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) and the introduced brown rat / Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). Without looking at teeth and skulls, they're not as easy to distinguish as I would have guessed. My personal, completely uninformed, vote was woodrat, because of its obvious white belly, even though the tail wasn't as hairy as I would expect. Nope. It's a black rat that isn't actually black. Go figure. I should note, the 2nd picture was my attempt to return the body back to its original stuffed-in-the-hole position, so that the black burying beetle I spied could get back to business. I wouldn't even begin to guess how the rat died and got stuffed.
There were two other possible IDs: the native dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) and the introduced brown rat / Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus). Without looking at teeth and skulls, they're not as easy to distinguish as I would have guessed. My personal, completely uninformed, vote was woodrat, because of its obvious white belly, even though the tail wasn't as hairy as I would expect. Nope. It's a black rat that isn't actually black. Go figure. I should note, the 2nd picture was my attempt to return the body back to its original stuffed-in-the-hole position, so that the black burying beetle I spied could get back to business. I wouldn't even begin to guess how the rat died and got stuffed.
