Endangered
Hammond's rice rat
Mindomys hammondi
Hammond's rice rat is a rodent in the family Cricetidae (order Rodentia) — Mindomys hammondi, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The fur is relatively short and woolly and is buffy with a grayish tone above and much paler—yellow or white—below, with the bases of the hairs grey. It has a long snout and small, dark ears that appear hairless. The very long tail is dark both above and below and has rectangular scales.
The fifth digit reaches to about half the length of the second phalange of the fourth. In specimens with published measurements, head and body length is 173 to 203 mm (6.8 to 8.0 in), tail length is 251 mm (9.9 in), hindfoot length is 41 to 42 mm (1.6 to 1.7 in), ear length is 18 mm (0.71 in), and greatest length of skull is 39.4 to 43.9 mm (1.55 to 1.73 in).
Range and habitat
If this record is correct, Mindomys would be unique among small, non-flying mammals native to Ecuador in occurring at relatively low elevations on both sides of the Andes. Citing unpublished work by Tirira and Percequillo, the 2009 IUCN Red List reports that Mindomys is known from eleven specimens collected at four localities in northwestern Ecuador, and that its altitudinal range extends from 1,200 to 2,700 m (3,900 to 8,900 ft) above sea level, but does not give details. Hammond's rice rat is known only from Ecuador, where it occurs in montane forest. A record from the Amazon basin lowlands is dubious.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
Formerly considered to be related with Nectomys, Sigmodontomys, Megalomys, or Oryzomys, it is now placed in then genus Mindomys, but its relationships remain obscure. Some evidence supports a placement near Oecomys or as a basal member of Oryzomyini. A large, long-tailed, and long-whiskered rat, its fur is buff above and abruptly lighter below. The IUCN Red List lists Hammond's rice rat as "endangered" in view of its small known distribution and a continuing decline in the extent and quality of its habitat.
Hammond's rice rat is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Hammond's rice rat, Wikidata item Q1763177. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
