

Moderator: Scott Waters
I would say that the body was probably 3-4 inches.Approx. how big was it?
It was in an interandean valley at a little over 3000 m asl. The habitat it was in is a forested area inbetween the 2 sides of the valley with a stream running through the bottom of the valley, as you can see it was found alongside the stream. I don't know exactly how to describe the type of forest it was in, the trees weren't very tall (compared to lowland rainforest) but the vegetation was dense and it seemed fairly wet, in certain areas it was quite mossy.Habitat would be helpful to know.
Fantastic! That's more than I knew and I really appreciate the help! It would be awesome if it turned out to be paramorum, i looked it up and its an endemic species to ecuador, that would be way more interesting than anything I expected.genus Thomasomys looks like a possible match maybe paramorum? I'll look again when I have more time.
I'll check it out.Mammalwatching.com
I still appreciate the effort the possible/maybe are still a big step up from where I was at before. All I could say was that it was a mouse haha. This next part is a bit embarrassing but I misread your post and thought you said "with an expert or a better look" instead of better bookI'd like to highlight the words "possible" and "maybe" in my reply. Your rodent seems to have a distinctive face, so I think it is IDable, with an expert or better book.
So still not quite resolved but getting there. Really makes me wish I had gotten better photos.I looked through your pictures and I am pretty sure it is a Neusticomys, and
most likely N. monticolus. These rats are very rarely seen so it is great to
have pictures of a live one! The water rats all have short, blunt faces for
swimming and they have hairy hind feet as can be seen in your pics. They
usually have a bit of webbing between the hind toes which I don't see in
your pics. Small eyes are typical. I would expect to see more vibrissae and
slightly less ear pinnae, but that could be due to the animal in life vs.
death and other variables. Hind feet are very long (as in your pics) and fur
is dense. Most water rats have hairy tails, but I am not sure about
Neusticomys. It is said to have dense short hair on the tail....
....
Thomasomys would be a possibility but they have much longer faces and bigger
ears with naked-looking pinnae. So I would go for Neusticomys. A reference
is Diego Tirira's Mamiferos del Ecuador, 2007. It has some photos of these
rats. It is a nice field guide but all in Spanish.
If you could send me pictures that show the tail, hind feet, front feet or
face in focus - especially feet and tail pics, so I can zoom in, I would be
better able to be sure of ID. I can also ask Carlos Boada, a friend in
Ecuador who traps a lot in the mountains. He works on Thomasomys so I think
he could rule out (or not) that genus, which doesn't leave many options. He
has caught one Neusticomys up there I think.
Fiona Reid, more than just a mammalogist in Ecuador, check out those books she authored on Amazon:Antonsrkn wrote:Update! I emailed Jon at mammal watching.com and he got in contact with Fiona Reid, a mammalogist in Ecuador for me. This is what she says...
So still not quite resolved but getting there. Really makes me wish I had gotten better photos.