A Checklist To The 11 Rats & Gerbils Of Sri Lanka

1
The Black Rat
The Black Rat lives in all parts of Sri Lanka (and the world) and comes in at least five distinct sub species - the Common House-Rat Rat , the Egyptian House Rat, the Indian House Rat, the Common Ceylon House Rat, and the Ceylon Highland Rat. None are much longer than thirty-three centimetres nose to tail and despite their reputation for being black, also sport the occasional lighter brown fur. It is disconcertingly resilient transmitter for many diseases, its blood giving a home to a large quantity of infectious bacteria – including the bubonic plague.

2
Blanford's Rat
Blanford's Rat, known also as White-Tailed Wood Rat, is found in impressive numbers throughout India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. Measuring thirty-five centimetres in length nose to tail, it has classic grey fur.

3
The Brown Rat
The Brown Rat has been studied and domesticated more than most mammals and inhabits almost every continent of the world – not least Sri Lanka. It is large – over 50 centimetres nose to tail. It is happy to consume almost anything, is highly social, produces up to 5 litters a year and - according to the more informed scientists, is capable of positive emotional feelings.

4
The Ceylon Gerbil
The sole island ambassador for a beast that boasts 110 species worldwide, the Ceylon Gerbil or Antilope-Rat is a distinct variant of the Indian Gerbil. Well distributed across the island, it lives in small colonies inside nests lined with dry grasses at the end of deep labyrinthine burrows. It is notably unneighbourly, aggressive and territorial with gerbils from other colonies. Like most gerbils it is exhaustively fertile, with pregnancies lasting under a month that produce up to nine young - who will themselves reach sexual maturity within four months. It is tiny – little more than 4 centimetres head to tail and clothed in brownish grey fur, all the better to pass unnoticed.

5
The Greater Bandicoot Rat
Measuring almost sixty centimetres in length nose to tail, the Greater Bandicoot Rat lives right across South and Southeast Asia and for is known in Sri Lanka as the Pig Rat. Aggressive, highly fertile, widespread, and happy to eat practically anything, it is also an enthusiastic carrier of many diseases.

6
The Indian Bush Rat,
The Indian Bush Rat is found widely across Sri Lanka and India – and even Iran. At twenty-five centimetres in length nose to tail, it is smaller than many other rats and has rather beautiful speckled yellow, black, and red fur.

7
The Indian Soft-Furred Rat
The beautiful Indian Soft Furred Rat make its home at any altitude and almost any place from India, Nepal, and Pakistan to Sri Lanka. So ubiquitous and successful is it, that it lists as being of no concern whatsoever on the registers of environmentalists troubled by species decline. Barely 30 centimetres nose to tail, it has brown to yellow fur on its back and white across its tummy.

8
The Lesser Bandicoot Rat
The Lesser Bandicoot Rat measures 40 centimetres nose to tail. It is found in significant numbers throughout India and Sri Lanka. Its fondness for burrowing in the farmlands and gardens has earnt it a reputation for destruction. It can be aggressive and is a reliable host to a range of nasty diseases including plague, typhus, leptospirosis, and salmonellosis.

9
The Nillu Rat
The endemic Nillu Rat is highly endangered, and today found in restricted highland locations such as the Knuckles, Horton Plains, Nuwara Eliya, and Ohiya. Little more than thirty-nine centimetres length nose to tail, its fur is red grey

10
The Ohiya Rat
Thirty centimetres in length, nose to tail, with steel grey fur and white undersides, the endemic Ohiya Rat is named after a small village near Badulla. It lives quietly in forests and has gradually become ever scarer in counts done by depressed biologists.

11
Tatera Sinhaleya
Tatera Sinhaleya is a long-departed rat, known only from fossil records.