Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat

Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Genus:	Nesokia
Species:	N. bunnii
Binomial name
Nesokia bunnii (Khajuria, 1981)

Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat (Nesokia bunnii) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found only in the marshes of southeastern Iraq and is named for the Iraqi zoologist Dr. Munir K. Bunni. ^[2] It is feared that the species might have gone extinct due to the draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes. ^[3]

In a Old Babylonian period cuneiform tablet from Tell Abu Antiq (bandicoot here refers to the Bunn's short-tailed bandicoot rat):

"... From Tur-Ugalla 7 bandicoots did Tutu-māgir send me; 6 to Šamaš-lamassašu, the ‘mirror-holder,’ I sent on; just one for my own repast I kept back, and it tasted excellent! How good they were had I but known, a single one to Šamaš-lamassašu I’d not have sent! ..." ^[4]

References

1. Stuart, S.N. (2008). "Nesokia bunnii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2008 e.T14660A4453417. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T14660A4453417.en . Retrieved 17 November 2021.
2. Beolens, Bo, et al. The Eponym Dictionary of Mammals. Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Cop, 2009, p. 64.‌
3. Scott, Derek A., ed. (1995). A Directory of Wetlands in the Middle East. IUCN / International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau. p. 264. ISBN   978-2-8317-0270-4. Archived from the original on 24 December 2018.
4. TCL 17, 013 Artifact Entry.” 2008. Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), June 25, 2008. https://cdli.earth/P387309

• Musser, G. G.; Carleton, M. D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1415. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.