Pouched rat

Crycetomys gambianus

The pouched rats ( Cricetomyinae ) are a small group of large to very large relative of mice that inhabit Africa south of the Sahara. Structural, rats similar, they are characterized by large cheek pouches, which have also given them the name. Pouched rats have a long, naked tail and small eyes. There are nocturnal animals that inhabit all sorts of habitats from dry savannah to rainforests.

System

The three genera have long been not recognized as belonging together and only put forward by Austin Roberts in 1951 as a sub-family of long-tailed mice. Other zoologists believed in them a tribe of voles to see or gave them the rank of a separate family. According to recent molecular genetic analyzes of the hamster rats, the sister group of the tree mice within the newly established family seem to be the Nesomyidae.

• Short-tailed pouched rats ( Saccostomus )
• Small hamster rats ( Beamys )
• Giant pouched rats ( Cricetomys )