Gambian pouched rat
Cricetomys gambianus
— Where the name comes from
Cricetomys joins Cricetus, the hamster, and mŷs: the “hamster-mouse”, for the enormous cheek pouches that make it look like a giant hamster. Gambianus names the Gambia, where the first specimens were collected. Despite the name it is no true rat: it belongs to an African family of its own, the Nesomyidae.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Rodents
- Habitat
- Forest, wooded savannah, cropland, suburbs
- Range
- Sub-Saharan Africa, from Senegal to northern South Africa
- Size
- 25–45 cm of body, tail 36–46 cm, 1–1.5 kg
- Diet
- Omnivore — fruit, seeds, insects, snails, scraps
- Lifespan
- 8 years in captivity
— Characteristics
- 01
It fills its cheeks with food and carries it back to the burrow to eat later.
- 02
It has very poor eyesight and an exceptional sense of smell.
- 03
It has become an invasive species in Florida, from animals escaped from the pet trade.
— What sets it apart
It clears minefields and diagnoses tuberculosis. The Belgian organisation APOPO trains these rats to signal the smell of TNT and of mycobacteria: they weigh too little to set off a mine and can sweep in half an hour an area that would cost a human deminer four days, while in the laboratory they check a hundred sputum samples in ten minutes. They have been used in Mozambique, Angola and Cambodia, and one of them, Magawa, received in 2020 a British medal for gallantry previously reserved for dogs.
