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Alfaro's Rice Rat

Casiomys alfaroi
LC · Least concern Rodentia Cricetidae
Size
8-10 cm + tail 9-12 cm
Weight
20 to 35 g
Activity
Nocturnal
Sociability
Alone or in Couples

Description

It is one of the seven Mesoamerican rice mice that until 2024 were classified within the genus Handleyomys, until a detailed genetic and morphological study separated them into their own genus, a recent example of how the systematic of small neotropic rodents continues to be reviewed even in known species for more than a century.

How to identify it

Small-medium-sized rodent, red brown fur in the back and clearer in the belly, moderately large ears and long tail, longer than the body.It differs from other related species of its same group by cranial and dental details that in practice require capture for a safe identification between the different species of the complex.

Signs and tracks

Fingerprint with 4 front fingers and 5 rear fingers, 1.5-2 cm rear, similar to that of other similar-size and difficult-to-differentiate-species-level sotobosque rodents. Extended feces, 5-7 mm, left scattered by the leafwood where it forages. Builds spherical nests of leaves and plant fibers at the base of trees, fallen trunks or dense vegetation at the ground.

Habitat and range

Tropical rainforest and transitional forest, with dense sotobosque, from low lands to mid-mountain quarters.

Diet

Omnivorous, it feeds on seed, fruit and insect from the sotobosque, foraging mainly by the soil.

Behaviour

Solitary or in couples, of nocturnal activity, it moves mainly by the soil of the subsoil.His reproductive behavior remains little documented in detail for much of its wide distribution area.

Conservation

Its populations are considered stable in most of its wide distribution area.

Threats

Deforestation and fragmentation of the rainforest by agricultural and livestock expansion in some areas of its area.

Other accounts in Cricetidae

See all species accounts for rodents · Full species index

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