A huge rat shows its owner its newborn cub (5 photos + 3 videos)

2 August 2017

A giant rat “leads” its owner by the hand to where its newborn rat lies.

[media=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxO2TB4wkU4]

Reddit users point out that this is a Gambian rat, which is trained to find mines in fields.

The Gambian hamster (“marsupial”) rat (Cricetomys gambianus) is not a true rat, although it resembles a rat in appearance. The relationship between rats and Gambian rats ends at the order - mouse-like, and then the branches diverge, and the Gambians no longer affect the genus Rattus, which includes our beloved gray rats. The Gambian is a subspecies of the hamster rat and is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. They live in groups of up to 20 animals, mainly in forests and small thickets.

The word “hamster” in the name of Gambian rats is due to the presence of cheek pouches like those of hamsters, while they have nothing to do with real hamsters, representatives of the hamster family. The presence of the word “marsupial” in the Russian version of the name of the subspecies is incorrect, since Gambian rats do not have any pouch. The Gambian hamster rat is a placental animal, i.e. the young are born fully formed and grow in a nest, while the young of marsupials are born underdeveloped and are gestated for some time in a pouch, usually located on the mother's stomach.

The Gambian rat is one of the largest representatives of mouse-like animals. It grows up to 90 centimeters in length, including the tail, with the tail taking up approximately half the length of the body. The weight of an adult Gambian rat ranges from 1 to 1.4 kg. Representatives of the species have poor eyesight, which is compensated by an excellent sense of smell and excellent hearing. Gambian rats are omnivores, feeding on vegetables, fruits, termites, and snails. The diet depends primarily on the habitat.

The Gambian rat has long been raised and kept as a farm animal in African countries, and recently the remarkable abilities of these animals have been actively used to detect tuberculosis and search for anti-personnel mines by the Belgian organization APOPO. Animals that undergo training are called HeroRATS. Currently, Gambian rats are becoming widespread as pets.