Pictures and facts about the Spiny rats

Atlantic bamboo rat	white-faced tree rat
yellow-crowned brush-tailed rat	armored rat
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Spiny rats

Order : Rodentia
Suborder : Hystricognathi
Family : Echimyidae

Facts about the family Echimyidae, the spiny rats

An interesting feature of spiny rats is the ease with which their tails break off.

Spiny rats are also important hosts for many infectious agents that cause diseases in humans, including leishmaniasis and Chagas' disease.

Spiny rats are often the most abundant rodent within their large geographic range.

Tail : mammals : rodents: Spiny Rat*Ground-dwelling spiny rats are 16 to 30 cm (6 to 12 in) long, with a tail of about the same length. (Full text)

DictionaryRATOrocket-assisted takeoffArticlesRato de Taquara*Spiny rats are herbivores and their diet includes fruit, nuts, and grains such as corn. (Full text)

panamensis, which was characterized by nodular, non-ulcerated lesions, showed that spiny rats are susceptible to this species of Leishmania. (Full text)

Like “true” rats and mice (family Muridae), spiny rats are slender and have short limbs, small hairless ears, large eyes, and either pointed or blunt noses with long whiskers. (Full text)

Another possible explanation for the lack of disease in spiny rats is that VEEV has been selected for attenuation in these reservoir hosts. (Full text)

In the second year, I manipulated resource density to test the hypothesis that spiny rats are not food-limited during the rainy season (the season of resource abundance). (Full text)