Central Rock Rat

Last Thursday we had an activity in which we introduced some endangered species. Our group was taking charge of endangered mammals and we introduced pandas. However, I found that many of you were interested in central rock rat. To be honest, I was also interested in it since I had never heard about it. Thus, I want to give you some introduction of central rock rat today.

First of all, I want to introduce its appearance. Picture 1 is a photo of central rock rat. Frankly speaking, I did not see any differences from a normal rat (Picture 2). To distinguish these two rats, I searched in http://www.australianfauna.com. According to this website, “Thick yellow fur … is present. The feet are a similar colour as the underbelly. The average head and body measurement of the central rock rat is 120mm …Central rock rats have round ears and a roman nose.” which made me more confused. After checking several websites, I concluded that there is little difference between them and we can just ignore it.

Picture 1 

 

 Picture 2

Next, I was going to introduce its nesting habits, but I read they can only be found in “the western portions of the MacDonnell Ranges of Australia”. Moreover, due to the hard environment, it is hard for humans to investigate its habits. As a result, we do not know much about it until now, even when it is going to extinct.

In conclusion, central rock rat is endangered species and we have not known it much yet. We have to save them and care about them.