Brown Rat and the rat family (56 species)
The brown rat, also known as the common rat, street rat, sewer rat, wharf rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat and Norwegian rat, is a widespread species of common rat. One of the largest muroids (a superfamily of rodents including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives), it is a brown or grey rodent with a body length of up to 28cm long, and a tail slightly shorter than that. It weighs between 140 and 500g. Thought to have originated in or around northern China, this rodent has now spread to all continents except Antarctica, and is the dominant rat in Europe and much of North America. Translocation of the rat was not generally intentional, but rats stowed away on ships and went ashore wherever the ship landed. With rare exceptions, the brown rat lives wherever humans live, particularly in urban areas. While they must have originated as a species capable of living without humans, nowadays they are only found within close proximity of humans.
Given its lack of true wild behaviour, this is not a species that I expect to write on, so I have not included a list of articles that it appears in, further more, this will not appear in a list of animals to try to see, unless someone knows of a truly wild brown rat region.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkNvEbEztRk
The brown rat is just one as many as 64 rat species that are found in much of the world (the number of species that people claim does vary).
Below you will find a grid of images. I hope, in the future, there will be a page about each of these species, particularly if any are of interest for seeing them in the wild. There are several issues with the images – firstly, there are 66 images, I am confused by this as I was only looking for 64 rat species. Furthermore, several species have the same picture – while on some sites this may have been a space maker, there are also several misnamed. Finally, there are a few species which do not have any pictures (even space makers – I have put these in as blank).
It is possible that at some point, I will write pages for all these species, but this is a good distance in the future. We are also keen to get to the point where readers can help on this front, for now, the pictures below with their names will have to surfice.
Aceh rat
Andaman rat
Arianus’s rat
Australian swamp rat
Black rat photo credit Kilessan CC by SA 3.0
Bonthain rat
Brown rat Photo credit Zeynel Cebeci CC by SA 4.0
Bulldog rat photo credit P J Smit Public domain
Bush rat
Cape York rat
Dusky field rat
Dusky rat
Eastern rat (eastern wood rat)
Enggano rat
giluwe rat
Glacier rat
Hainald’s rat
Himalayan field rat photo credit Aniruddha Singhamahapatra CC by NIC
Hoffmanns sulawesi rat photo credit Dan Schofield CC by 4.0
Hoogerwerf’s rat (sumatran
Japen rat
Kerala rat
Koopmans rat
Korinch’s rat (sumatran mountain rat
Large New Guinea spiny rat
Lesser_Ricefield_Rat_imported_from_iNaturalist_photo_245797516_on_1_January_2023 CCby 4.0
Little soft-furred rat
Long-haired rat
Maclear’s rat
Mentawai rat
Mindoro black rat
Molaccan prehensile-tailed rat
Moss-forest rat
New Guinea rat
New Ireland forest rat
Nicobar Archipelago rat (nonsense rat)
Nillu rat
Opossum rat
Osgood’s rat
Pale field rat
Peleng rat
Philippine forest rat
Pocock’s highland rat
Polynesian rat photo credit Forest and Kim Starr CC by SA 3.0
Rattus palmarum Nicobus islands palm rat
Rattus_tanezum CC by 4.0
A field rat infesting rice plants.
Sahyadris forest rat photo credit Amruta Varudkar CC by 3.0
Sikkim or Indo-chinese forest rat
Simalur rat
Slender rat
Southeastern Xanthruus rat
Spiny Ceram rat
Stein’s rat (small spiny rat)
Sula rat
Sulawesian white-tailed rat
Suluwesi white tailed rat
Summit rat Rattus baluensis visiting Nepenthes_rajah
Sunburnt rat – likely extinct not seen for 80 years – Copy
Tawitawi forest rat
Timor rat (timor forest rat)
Turkestan rat
Van Deusen’s rat
Vogelkop mountain rat
Western New Guinea mountain rat
Yellow-tailed rat creator Adolf Bernhard Meyer Public domain
