a live one

Hog-nosed Shrew Rat (Hyorhinomys stuempkei), family Muridae, Sulawesi, Indonesia

photograph by Kevin C Rowe | Museum Victoria 

i was looking around the cage for my fourth rat until...

sweet roll

Haven't posted a mouse update in a while but some interesting things have been popping up in my colony of yellows and artentes.

This dove female is either a chimera or has a somatic mutation giving her a striking orange spot. Neither is inheritable, so she won't pass this trait down to offspring, nor did she inherit it from her parents. She's a luck of the draw!

Tentatively calling her Patch, but it's not advisable to name them before they mature. Anything can happen. She does look very plump and healthy though.

Southern Viscacha (Lagidium viscacia), family Chinchillidae, found in mountainous areas of southern South America.

photographs by Jeremiel & Alexandre Buisse & Diego Delso

I’m so burnt out from work that this little rat making music has me crying on this fine Friday night

[Video description: a TikTok by SpaceCaptainz, which depicts the filmer holding a miniature harmonica up to a rat, which snuffles curiously at it. As it sniffs the harmonica, its breaths filter through to create miscellaneous fast-paced notes.]

Australian Water Rat aka Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), family Muridae, Canberra, Australia

photograph by Raw Shorty

Australian Water Rat aka Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), family Muridae, Australia

photograph by Terry Genesen Becker

Australian Water Rat aka Rakali (Hydromys chrysogaster), family Muridae, Canberra, Australia

photograph by Raw Shorty

In 1982, quite by accident, a zookeeper at Izu Shaboten Zoo in Shizuoka Prefecture discovered that capybaras absolutely loved soaking in hot water, and the practice of providing them an onsen, or traditional Japanese hot spring, was born. Source Massimo; video @yu_haradakei.

MOVE IDIOT

Family portrait

Big headed mole rat (Tachyoryctes macrocephalus)

@ birdexplorers