Cloud rat

The cloud rats or cloudrunners are a group of arboreal and folivorous[1] nocturnal rodents native to the forests of the Philippines. Locally called as Bu-ot, Siyang, Laksoy, Bugkon or Darauda, there are six known species of true cloud rat, and two dwarf cloud rat species.

Cloud rats
Phloeomys pallidus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
(unranked): Phloeomys division
Groups included
Cladistically included but traditionally excluded taxa

Cloud rats are slow-moving herbivores and are thought to be preyed upon by large birds such as the Philippine eagle. The rats are quite large, and they have been hunted by people in the Philippines for their meat, driving the rodents to near extinction.

These animals have not been studied extensively. The Filipino Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau has begun breeding Northern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rats in captivity. Some species of cloud rats are kept in the mini-zoo of the College of Agriculture and Forestry of the West Visayas State University in their Lambunao campus in the province of Iloilo.

Several European and North American zoos also keep and breed cloud rats in captivity; including the London Zoo[2] , Prague Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Wingham Wildlife Park[3] and Chester Zoo[4].

Species
  • Giant cloud rats – genus Phloeomys
    • Phloeomys pallidus (northern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rat)
    • Phloeomys cumingi (southern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rat)
  • Bushy-tailed cloud rats – genus Crateromys
    • Crateromys schadenbergi (giant bushy-tailed cloud rat)
    • Crateromys paulus (Ilin Island cloud rat) - collected in 1981 through a dead specimen
    • Crateromys australis (Dinagat Island cloud rat) - rediscovered in 2012
    • Crateromys heaneyi (Panay bushy-tailed cloud rat)
  • Dwarf cloud rats – genus Carpomys
    • Carpomys melanurus (dwarf cloud rat, short-footed Luzon tree rat)
    • Carpomys phaeurus (white-bellied Luzon tree rat)

References
  1. van der Geer, Alexandra; et al. (2010). Evolution of island mammals : adaptation and extinction of placental mammals on islands. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 226. ISBN 978-1-4051-9009-1.
  2. "Cloud rat arrives at London Zoo". BBC News. 2004-11-11. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  3. "Northern Luzon Cloud Rat". Wingham Wildlife Park. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  4. "Chester Zoo has just become home to a tree kangaroo called Sangria". Chester Live. 2018-05-23. Retrieved 2019-10-04.
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