Black Rat (Ship Rat)
Rattus rattus
Summary 3
The black rat (Rattus rattus) is a common long-tailed rodent of the genus Rattus (rats) in the subfamily Murinae (murine rodents). The species originated in tropical Asia and spread through the Near East in Roman times before reaching Europe by the 1st century and spreading with Europeans across the world.
Other resources 4
Identification quiz to test your ability to distinguish black/brown rats: http://www.ratbehavior.org/QuizNorwayRatRoofRat.htm
Differences between the species in NZ: https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~smiller/rat_id
Example pictures of the different species in NZ: https://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~smiller/ratPics
Sources and Credits
- (c) David Riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by David Riddell
- (c) Wendy Bailey, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Wendy Bailey
- Adapted by Tony Wills from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rattus_rattus
- (c) Tony Wills, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
More Info
- iNat taxon page
- Animal Diversity Web
- ASM Mammal Diversity Database
- Atlas of Living Australia
- Biodiversity Heritage Library
- BOLD Systems BIN search
- CalPhotos
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- iNaturalist Mammal Working Group
- Maryland Biodiversity Project
- NatureServe Explorer 2.0
- NBN Atlas
- Rat identification in New Zealand
- VertNet
- 日本のレッドデータ検索システム
