Manipur bush rat

The Manipur bush rat (, ) or Hume's rat or Hume's hadromys is a species of rodent. It belongs to the family Muridae. It is found in Manipur and other Northeastern Indian regions. It is an endangered species.

 Home 
The species lives only in Northeast India. It has been recorded from several localities. These are:
 Bishnupur in Manipur
 Imphal in Manipur
 Senapati in Manipur 
 Karong (specimen FMNH 76562) in Manipur.
 Angarakhata in Kamrup district (Assam)

The Manipur bush rat lives at places with medium altitudes from  above sea level. It lives in tropical evergreen, moist deciduous and evergreen forests. It is also found in secondary forests in Northeastern India.

 Finding out 
The murid was described by Oldfield Thomas in 1886. The description was from specimens in the Manipur collection of Allan Octavian Hume. It was donated to the British Museum (Natural History) after Hume's life's work in ornithological notes were sold by a servant as waste paper. The Manipur Bush Rat was named in honour of him. The collection has two male and two female specimens. It was recorded to be collected on 23 March 1881 from Moirang in Manipur. It was the type locality for this species.

 Description 
The specimen has been described by Thomas (1886) as:

The length of the head and the body of the largest specimen was that of a female. It was  long. The length of its tail was  long. Elsewhere, the head and body length has been given as head and body length as , the tail length as . The weight has been recorded as ranging from .
 Safeguarding level 
The species has been given safeguarding level (conservation status) of "Endangered - B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)" in IUCN Red List ver 3.1. The rules for this rating include:
 maximum area of living (less than ).
 maximum geographical area of span (less than ).
 less than five reported areas. 
 continuing decline in areas and destruction of homes.

The main causes of damages to the conditions of this species are found to be loss of and destruction of home, separation, and overpass. Other than these, hunting and firing are also the contributing causes.

 References 

Category:Flora and fauna of Manipur
Category:Old World rats and mice
Category:Animals of India
Category:Mammals of Asia