Antillean Giant Rice Rat
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| iAntillean Giant Rice Rat | ||||||||||||||||
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Extinct (1902)
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| Megalomys desmarestii (Fischer, 1829) |
The Antillean Giant Rice Rat (Megalomys desmarestii) is an extinct rice rat from Martinique in the Caribbean. It was the largest species of West Indian rice rat, as big as a cat, and was the last species to become extinct. When pursued, it often took to water and may have been partially aquatic but they never moved far off the island. Nobody knows how it came to Martinique. It was common on Martinique until the end of the nineteenth century. It was a pest in coconut plantations, and attempts were made to extrminate it. It was also hunted for food. To subdue its musky odour, people had to singe off its hair, expose its body overnight and boil it in two batches of water. At 7.52 a.m. on 8 May 1902, Mt. Pelée erupted, devastating the island. Only one human survived and the rice rat became extinct then, or during a later eruption in 1902.
[edit] See also
- Volcano for more information about Mt. Pelée
[edit] External source
- Flannery, Tim & Schouten, Peter (2001). A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. ISBN 0-87113-797-6.
[edit] References
- Baillie (1996). Megalomys desmarestii. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is listed as extinct
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