Bulldog Rat

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Bulldog Rat
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Subfamily: Murinae
Genus: Rattus
Species: R. nativitatis
Binomial name
Rattus nativitatis
(Thomas, 1888)

The Bulldog Rat (Rattus nativitatis) lived on the higher hills and denser forests of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. It had a short tail and its back was covered in a two centimetre thick layer of fat. It lived in small colonies, in burrows among the roots of trees or under hollow logs in primary forest. It was sluggish and never climbed and may have seemed half-dazed in daylight. The last record dates from 1903. It may have succumbed to a disease brought by black rats that had been inadvertently introduced by human sailors.

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