465.

Paraguayan Rice Rat

Sooretamys angouya

French: Oryzomys du Paraguay / German: Paraguay-Reisratte / Spanish: Rata arrocera de Paraguay

Other common names: Angouya Sooretamys, Rat-headed Rice Rat

Taxonomy. Mus angouya G. Fischer, 1814, type locality not given. Restricted by G. G. Musser and colleagues in 1998 to “ Paraguay east of the Rio Paraguay, Departamento de Misiones, 2: 7 km (by road) N San Antonio.”

Sooretamys angouya is the type species of the genus. Monotypic.

Distribution. SE & S Brazil, E Paraguay, and NE Argentina .

Descriptive notes. Head-body 125-215 mm, tail 160-240 mm, ear 21-26 mm, hindfoot 25-42 mm; weight 80-168 g (mean 110 g). The Paraguayan Rice Rat is moderately large, with robust body, large head, turgent black eyes, tail much longer than head-body length, and robust and wide hindfeet. Pelage is soft, long, and very dense. Dorsum varies from buffy yellow grizzled with dark brown to buffy orange grizzled with black; venter grades from whitish or buff weakly grizzled with gray to an almost pure white, buff, or buffy yellow. Tail 1s covered with short hairs, unicolored, and blackish or dark brown. Ears are covered with brown haris. Forefeet and hindfeet are covered above by short brown hair, and ungual tufts of toes are dense and long. Mystacial vibrissae are very dense and long, surpassing ears when laid back.

Habitat. Mostly in Atlantic Forest habitats, from coastal lowland forests to montane forest, and gallery or riparian dense plant communities along rivers and streams of the Chacoan biome.

Food and Feeding. No information.

Breeding. Reproductive Paraguayan Rice Rats have been detected in spring to summer (September-March).

Activity patterns. The Paraguayan Rice Rat is nocturnal, scansorial, and moderately arboreal; captured specimens came from the ground and low canopy.

Movements, Home range and Social organization. Paraguayan Rice Rats move on the ground with meter-long leaps. Climb and diggerskills are apparently well developed. This species is reported to be aggressive and cannibalistic in captivity. It is considered common but not abundant.

Status and Conservation. Classified as Least Concern on The IUCN Red Lust.

Bibliography. Alho (1982), de Avila-Pires (1960c), d/ Azara (1801, 1802), Bonvicino et al. (2002), Cademartori et al. (2002), Chiquito (2010), Chiquito et al. (2014), Grisolia & Bianchini (1976), de Lima et al. (2010), Massoia (1974b, 1993), Musser, Carleton et al. (1998), Olmos (1992), Percequillo (1998, 2015j), Percequillo, Weksler, Pardinas, D’Elia, Teta & Patterson (2016), Teta, Pardinas et al. (2007), Thomas (1924c).