White-tailed rat

The African hamsters ( Mystromys albicaudatus ) is a species of rodents, which despite its name is not associated with the hamsters. Another name for the animal is white-tailed rat, and indeed it is more likely than rat - hamster -like.

African hamsters only live in South Africa and Lesotho. They have a body length of 15 cm, plus 7 inch cock. The coat is gray-brown on the upper side and lower side white. The habitat are grass savannas and semi-deserts. During the day, the African hamster hiding in crevices or in burrows of other animals, and comes out at night to search for seeds and other plant parts.

Because the natural habitat of the African hamster is increasingly replaced by pasture land, a population decline was recorded by 80 % during the last decades. Since 2003, therefore, the IUCN leads the way " threatened " status.

There are now several fossil relatives from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of South Africa and is now thought that the African hamster is not closely related to the hamsters, but heard as distant relative of other purely African taxa in the newly established family of Nesomyidae. In most taxonomies it is managed in a separate subfamily Mystromyinae.