#crested rat

[vintagewildlife]

Crested rat (Lophiomys imhausi) By: Ernest P. Walker & P. F. Wright From: Walker's Mammals of the World 1964

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Requesting maned rat pretty please

Have you seen the maned rat (Lophiomys imhausi)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onSep 13, 2024

[synapsidnotebook]

Lophiomys (Maned rat)

Named by: Milne-Edwards, 1867 Taxonomy: Synapsida, Sphenacomorpha, Sphenacodontia, Sphenacodontoidea, Therapsida, Theriodontia, Cynodontia, Probainognathia, Mammaliamorpha, Mammaliaformes, Mammalia…

A large, slow-moving rodent would make a substantial meal for many predators. However, there are strong indicators that Lophiomys are not easy prey. When threatened, the long, gray-tipped hairs that normally cover their body are flared out, erecting a crest along the back and exposing boldly-patterned black and white tracts of shorter hair along the flanks. Such an eye-catching threat display would appear to be a warning to predators of a potent defense mechanism, but what this defense is has not been clearly understood until recently.

New post! The maned rat is an unusual African rodent that has a deadly surprise for reckless predators.

[grubhouse]

The crested rat actively transfers poison onto its fur in the form of cardiac glycosides. The rodents chew on the bark and leaves of the highly toxic poison arrow tree (Acokanthera schimperi) before transferring a mixture of toxins and saliva specifically to the lateral lines of fur on their flanks. The poison extracted from this particular plant is the same that was used by people in East Africa on their arrows when hunting elephants or other large animals. It is fast-acting and causes paralysis and rapid contractions of the cardiac muscle that can be deadly.

[ainawgsd]

Giant Rat Kills Predators with Poisonous Hair

"This is the first mammal that is borrowing a deadly poison from a plant and slathering it on itself without dying," said study researcher Jonathan Kingdon, of Oxford University in England. "This is an extraordinary thing to have evolved."

It is unknown why the rat doesn't die from chewing the poison, though it could be resistant somehow. "The rats should drop dead every time they chew this stuff but they are not," Kingdon said. "We don't have the slightest idea how that could be done."

Learning more about how this poison works could even help human medicine, since it acts by inducing heart attacks. A related chemical, called digitoxin, has been used for decades as a treatment for heart failure.

[ainawgsd]

The maned rat or crested rat (Lophiomys imhausi) is a nocturnal, long-haired and bushy-tailed East African rodent that superficially resembles a porcupine.

By utilizing the same plants that African tribesmen use to poison their arrows, the African crested rat can incapacitate and even kill predators many times its size 

The maned rat's body can grow up to 21 inches from head to tail. The coat consists of long, silver and black-tipped guard hairs over a dense, woolly, grey and white undercoat, with the face and limbs having short, black fur. A mane of longer, coarser black-and-white banded hairs extends from the top of the animal's head to just beyond the base of the tail. 

This mane is bordered by a broad, white-bordered strip of hairs covering an area of glandular skin. The forelimbs and hind limbs have short black fur. When the animal is threatened or excited, the mane erects and this strip parts, exposing the glandular area. The hairs in this area are, at the tips, like ordinary hair, but are otherwise spongy, fibrous, and absorbent. The rat is known to deliberately smear these hairs with poison from the bark of the Acokanthera schimperi, on which it chews, thus creating a defense mechanism that can sicken or even kill predators which attempt to bite it.

Its diet in the wild consists largely of leaves, fruit, and other plant material, but it has been known to eat meat, cereals, root vegetables, and insects in captivity. Food is eaten by sitting on its haunches and using its forepaws to bring food items to its mouth. It is the only species in the super family Muroidea whose stomach is highly compartmentalized. The stomach contains five anatomically discrete sections that superficially resemble the sacculated configuration characteristic of ruminant artiodactyls. By virtue of its large size and biomass, L. imhausi may be one of the few muroid rodents that can harbor a symbiotic microflora in the foregut and profit metabolically from gastric fermentation of cellulose.

The habitat of the maned rat ranges from nearly sea level, in Ethiopia and Somalia, to more typically the drier, highland forests and woodlands of Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. They are often found in rocky areas or in hollow tree trunks and holes along the tops of ravines, and have also been found nesting among rocks on cliff-faces.

[crittercuriosity]

Critter Curiosity #1: The Crested or Maned rat.

These fashionable rodents live in East Africa where they live alone in cliff-side nests and eat leaves, fruit and plants (though they’ve been known to eat meat, insects and roots in captivity). When excited or threatened, the maned rat puffs up its crest, exposing oily glands along the white stripes on their sides. They purposefully smear these hairs with poison from the bark of the Acokanthera schimperi plant, a defense that can sicken or kill any predator who bites it. Best not to mess with this tiny punk.

[albertonykus]

We don’t frequently associate rodents with the use of aposematism (warning signals), but some of them pull it off.