| Cape dune mole-rat [1] | |
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Bathyergidae |
| Genus: | Bathyergus |
| Species: | B. suillus |
| Binomial name | |
| Bathyergus suillus (Schreber, 1782) | |
The Cape dune mole-rat (Bathyergus suillus) is a species of solitary burrowing rodent in the family Bathyergidae. It is endemic to South Africa and named for the Cape of Good Hope.
The Cape dune mole-rat is the largest of all the blesmols, measuring 27 to 35 centimetres (11 to 14 in) in head-body length, with a short, 3 to 4 centimetres (1.2 to 1.6 in) tail. Males are generally much heavier than females, weighing anything from 570 to 1,350 grams (20 to 48 oz), compared with typical female weights of 590 to 970 grams (21 to 34 oz). [3]
Both sexes are sturdy, large-bodied rodents, with blunt snouts, cylindrical torsos and short limbs. The forefeet are heavily adapted for digging, with powerful curved claws. To enable to move more quickly through tight tunnels, the body has few visible external features; for example, there are no pinnae or scrotum, and the penis retracts into a concealed sheath. Lip-like flaps of skin are able to close behind the incisors, preventing soil from falling into the mouth. The eyes are small, but not permanently closed. [4]
Unlike its relative the naked mole-rat, the Cape dune species has a thick pelt of soft fur over its entire body. It is cinnamon-brown with greyish underparts, and few, if any markings. [4] Like other blesmols, the Cape dune mole rat has a relatively low body temperature for its size, of about 35 °C (95 °F), and is not able to tolerate cold weather above ground. [5]
The Cape dune mole-rat is found only in South Africa, where it is found along the southern and western shores roughly between Vanrhynsdorp and Port Elizabeth. Its natural habitat is sandy shorelines and river banks dominated by veldt grassland, sedges, and herbs. [2]
Like all mole-rats, this species is strictly herbivorous. Their diet consists largely of grass and sedges pulled down into the burrow by the roots, although they also eat bulbs and tubers from local plants such as Albuca and cape tulips. [6] Since they almost never travel above ground, they are neither clearly nocturnal or diurnal, and may be active at any time of the day, although their peak activity seems to be during the afternoon. [4]
Unusually for a blesmol, the Cape dune mole-rat is not a social animal, with each individual having its own, isolated, burrow system. While most other blesmols dig through soil using their large, chiselling incisor teeth, the loose, sandy soil of their native environment makes this approach less effective for Cape dune mole-rats, which instead dig primarily with their claws, kicking the sand behind their bodies and eventually pushing it up to the surface as a molehill. The burrows are entirely sealed, with no access to the surface, and stretch for between 50 and 420 metres (160 and 1,380 ft), over an area of around 0.27 hectares (0.67 acres). A single mole rat has been estimated to be able to excavate up to 500 kilograms (1,100 lb) of soil in a month, under ideal conditions. [6]
Such burrows consist of numerous tunnels that the mole rat uses to search for food, and a few, deeper chambers used for nesting, food storage, and as latrines. Most tunnels are between 35 and 65 centimetres (14 and 26 in) below ground, but there are often a few blind-ending passages running as deep as 2 metres (6 ft 7 in), into which the animal retreats to escape from mole snakes and other predators, blocking the tunnel behind itself as it does so. The burrows are protected from extremes of weather, and are constantly humid and hypoxic. [4]
The breeding season lasts from April to November, when rain is plentiful. Receptive individuals initially signal to each other by drumming on the floors of their burrows with their hind legs. After they have approached other, they lock their large incisor teeth together, until the female raises her tail and calls out prior to copulation. [4]
Gestation lasts for about two months, and results in the birth of a litter of up to six young, with three being typical. The young are initially blind and weigh 27 to 52 grams (0.95 to 1.83 oz). They open their eyes at seven days, begin to take solid food at twelve days, and are fully weaned by the end of their first month. Litter mates frequently spar with one another, and disperse to establish their own burrow systems after around two months, by which time they have already reached nearly half the adult body weight. [7] They live for over six years. [4]
The German physician and naturalist Johann von Schreber was the first to describe the Cape dune mole-rat in 1782 and gave it the scientific name Mus suillus, but this name was apparently unknown to later colleagues. In 1788 the species was described again, both by the also German Johann Friedrich Gmelin, who called it Mus maritimus, and by the Swedish naturalist and Cape explorer Carl Peter Thunberg, who gave it the name Marmota africana. The Scotsman Andrew Smith classified the species, as described by Gmelin, with the genus Georychus, making the new combination G. maritimus. In 1829 the French naturalist Georges Cuvier relocated the species again and created the new combination Orycterus maritimus. In 1832 Johanne Smuts classified the species with the genus Bathyergus, but again with the species name maritimus. It wasn't until 1926, when Austin Roberts realized that Von Schreber's name was the first and that the correct combination is therefore Bathyergus suillus. [8] There are currently no recognised subspecies of Cape dune mole-rat, although there have been few detailed studies of their genetic variability. It is possible that the species can hybridise with the Namaqua dune mole-rat, with some suspected hybrids having been recovered from the Groenrivier region, where the two species live relatively close together. [4]
The genus name Bathyergus is derived from the Greek and means deep digger. The species name suillus comes from the Latin word sus (pig) and refers to the pig-like nose. [8]
The Cape dune mole-rat is one of only two living species of the genus Bathyergus, along with the Namaqua dune mole-rat. Both living species may have evolved from Bathyergus hendeyi , an extinct species rather smaller than the extant forms, which inhabited the Cape Province region of South Africa during the early Pliocene, around four million years ago. Because of the large numbers of fossils found together, it has been suggested that this early species was social, like most other blesmols, but unlike its presumed living descendants; however, other possible explanations for this taphonomy exist. [9]
Mole-rat or mole rat can refer to several groups of burrowing Old World rodents:
The rodent subfamily Rhizomyinae includes the Asian bamboo rats and certain of the African mole-rats. The subfamily is grouped with the Spalacinae and the Myospalacinae into a family of fossorial muroid rodents basal to the other Muroidea.
The naked mole-rat, also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in the genus Heterocephalus.
The Spalacidae, or spalacids, are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. They are native to eastern Asia, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and southeastern Europe. It includes the blind mole-rats, bamboo rats, mole-rats, and zokors. This family represents the oldest split in the muroid superfamily, and comprises animals adapted to a subterranean way of life. These rodents were thought to have evolved adaptations to living underground independently until recent genetic studies demonstrated they form a monophyletic group. Members of the Spalacidae are often placed in the family Muridae along with all other members of the Muroidea.
The blind mole-rats, also known as the fossorial or subterranean mole rats, are a subfamily (Spalacinae) of rodents in the family Spalacidae, found in eastern Europe and western & central Asia. The hystricognath mole-rats of the family Bathyergidae are completely unrelated, but some other forms are also in the family Spalacidae. Zokors, root rats, and bamboo rats are spalacids also sometimes referred to as mole rats.
The blesmols, also known as mole-rats, or African mole-rats, are burrowing rodents of the family Bathyergidae. They represent a distinct evolution of a subterranean life among rodents much like the pocket gophers of North America, the tuco-tucos in South America, or the Spalacidae from Eurasia.
The rodent parvorder or infraorder Phiomorpha comprises several living and extinct families found wholly or largely in Africa. Along with Anomaluromorpha and perhaps the extinct Zegdoumyidae, it represents one of the few early colonizations of Africa by rodents.
The Damaraland mole-rat, Damara mole rat or Damaraland blesmol, is a burrowing rodent found in southern Africa. Along with the smaller, less hairy, naked mole rat, it is a species of eusocial mammal.
Bathyergus is the genus of dune mole-rats endemic to South Africa. It contains two species — B. janetta, the Namaqua dune mole-rat, and B. suillus, the Cape dune mole-rat.
The Cape mole-rat is a species of mole-rat endemic to South Africa. It is the only extant species currently described as belonging to the genus Georychus.
The silvery mole-rat, silvery blesmol, or silky mole-rat is a species of mole-rat of East Africa which occurs in southern Kenya, Tanzania, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Malawi. Solitary and aggressive, little is known about its ecology or behavior. It is monotypic in the genus Heliophobius. A common species, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated it as being of "least concern".
The Namaqua dune mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Bathyergidae found in Namibia and South Africa. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, caves, and sandy shores.
The Nigerian mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Bathyergidae. It is found in northern Nigeria and Cameroon. A colonial, subterranean species, its natural habitats are tropical dry lowland grassland, riverside woodland and rocky places.
Mechow's mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Bathyergidae. It is found in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, and possibly Malawi. Its natural habitats are moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, and subtropical or tropical dry lowland grassland. This mole-rat was first described by the German naturalist Wilhelm Peters in 1881. The specific epithet honours the Prussian explorer and naturalist Friedrich Wilhelm Alexander von Mechow.
The Ghana mole-rat or Togo mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Bathyergidae. It is endemic to Ghana.
The northeast African mole-rat is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae and is found in Ethiopia, Somalia, and northwest Kenya. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, dry savanna, high-altitude shrubland and grassland. It lives a solitary existence underground and produces a small litter of pups twice a year, in the two rainy seasons. Some taxonomic authorities lump this species, along with a number of others in the genus, in which case the English name East African mole-rat is used.
Rodents are mammals of the order Rodentia, which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are native to all major land masses except for New Zealand, Antarctica, and several oceanic islands, though they have subsequently been introduced to most of these land masses by human activity.
The common mole-rat, African mole-rat, or Hottentot mole-rat, is a burrowing rodent found in Southern Africa, in particular in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It also occurs in Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is a species in the subfamily Bathyerginae.
Fukomys is a genus described in 2006 of common mole-rats, containing several species that were formerly placed in the genus Cryptomys; its species are endemic to Africa.
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