Rat Year Talks about Ya'an
Rat
People are accustomed to call rodents 'rats', including the hated rats, the cute squirrels, the flying gerbils, and the bamboo rats that compete with pandas.
On the occasion of the rat year, let's chat about Ya'an's 'rats' and the 'rats' around us.
Red-white flying gerbils
Flying gerbils
Gerbils, also known as flying squirrels or flying foxes, are of varying sizes and colors, with broad, bushy membranes between the fore and hind limbs, and their bodies are very light. When they jump from high places, the stretched membranes resemble flying tools in television dramas, allowing them to glide a certain distance, but they cannot fly like birds.
Gerbils are good at one thing but not skilled in another, they can fly but cannot climb walls, they can climb but cannot hunt wood, they can swim but cannot cross rivers, they can dig burrows but cannot hide their bodies, they can walk but cannot follow people.
Ya'an's gerbils include the molting gerbil, the large gerbil, the high-altitude gerbil, the red-white gerbil, the black-white gerbil, and the gray gerbil. In 1956, 1957, and 1971, Beijing Zoo respectively captured one gerbil for breeding and exhibition. Bao Xing is the origin of the red-white gerbil, gray gerbil, by Armande David was first collected specimens in Bao Xing in 1869, in 1870 and 1872 by French Paris Natural History Museum Miller Edwardis named.
Gerbils are a treasure trove of animals, even their droppings have great use.
Squirrels in Zhangjiashan Park by Yang Hua photography
Cute squirrels
The squirrel family is a large group of rodents with fluffy, bushy tails, distributed across almost all continents except Antarctica, with 200 species worldwide, 26 species in China, 7 species in Sichuan Province, and 5 species distributed in Ya'an, including the red-belly squirrel, the patterned squirrel, the long-nosed squirrel, the Sichuan squirrel, the Himalayan marmot etc. The patterned squirrel, the long-nosed squirrel, the Sichuan squirrel's specimen origin is Bao Xing county, these specimens were all collected by Armande David.
The patterned squirrel, also known as the golden flower rat or Ling Lingzi, is small, about 13 cm long, and its tail is almost as long as its body. The back of the squirrel is brown-tan with 7 longitudinal stripes of light and dark, the back hair is brown-tan. The skin of the patterned squirrel has some practical value and is listed in 'National List of Valuable or of Important Scientific Research Value Wild Animals'.
Like pandas, the Sichuan squirrel was discovered and named in Bao Xing county, and it is only distributed in China.
The Himalayan marmot belongs to the squirrel family, but it does not have 'rat' in its name, it is a species unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it has a distribution in high-altitude areas such as Bao Xing county, its appearance is brown-yellow, and it has scattered black markings, its shape is stout and obese, its tail is short, it is a burrowing and gregarious animal, it lives in family-type nests.
Bamboo rats
Bamboo rats that get their name from eating bamboo, some people classify them as moles, bamboo rats.
The Chinese bamboo rat has the scientific name Rhizomys sinensis Gray, which is also translated as ordinary bamboo rat, commonly known as bamboo rat, bamboo root pig, bamboo rat. The Chinese bamboo rat has 8 subspecies, which are distributed in Ya'an City, and the Sichuan subspecies is the main distribution. The specimen was collected by Armande David in 1869.
Bamboo rat meat is delicate and fat-free, delicious and tender, a top-grade wild delicacy, it is a high-nutrition, low-fat, low-cholesterol meat food, its content of lysine, methionine and tryptophan is higher than that of chicken, duck, pig, cattle, sheep, fish, shrimp and crab. It's said that 'the pigeon in the sky and the bamboo rat on the ground'.
Like pandas, the Sichuan squirrel competes with bamboo rats for bamboo, and even harms bamboo forests.
Of course, pandas also have a clever way to deal with bamboo rats. As soon as they smell their scent or find their traces, they can quickly find their caves, and then use their mouths to spray air into the caves and use their forepaws to beat, forcing the bamboo rats to flee in a hurry. The pandas seize the opportunity to jump up, hold down the bamboo rats with their forepaws, tear off the skin, and eat the meat. If the bamboo rats don't run out of the hole, the pandas will dig a hole and ransack it until they catch it.
White-bellied giant rat
Big white-bellied giant rat
The Longmen cave in Liushan County, Sichuan Province, is located on the mysterious north latitude 30 degree line, with an area of more than 80 square kilometers, the cave is more than 100 kilometers long, which is known as 'the first in Asia and rare in the world'. But the giant rats living in the cave are not idle, they have brought many troubles to the management and development. This giant rat weighs more than one kilogram, lives in the dark caves for a long time, can walk on steep cave walls like flying, can eat candles, eat carp. Giant rats stay in the cave during the day and come out at night to look for food.
To eliminate these giant rats, the management personnel installed multiple large, sturdy iron rat cages. On April 29, 2012, they successfully captured one giant rat, brought it out of the cave, and after measuring, this giant rat was 58 centimeters long, its tail was 30 centimeters long, and it weighed 700 grams.
The Sichuan Forestry Science Institute's Vice President Liu Shao Ying, who is an expert in studying mammals, believes that based on the description of the management personnel of the 'giant rat', this animal is the white-bellied giant rat, one of the largest rodents in the squirrel family, its body is thicker than the gray squirrel, its tail is also long and thick, the tip of the tail is gray-white. The back hair is brown or slightly dark brown, the head and tail are consistent in color, usually about 600 grams, the foot length is about 40 millimeters, the whiskers are thick and long, up to 120 millimeters, the base is black brown, to the tip of the color gradually becomes lighter, around the mouth has a short whisker, the color is long whisker is pale, mostly gray white.
River otter rats
'Foreign' river otter rats
River otter rats are animals of the river otter rat family, also known as beavers, originated in South America, large in shape, short and thick, the body is 43 to 65 cm long, and the weight is 5 to 10 kilograms. The tail is round and long, with scales and sparse short hair. It lives in streams, creeks and ponds, lives in burrows. It is herbivorous, and also eats soft-bodied animals. It can reproduce throughout the year, with one litter per year, 5 to 6 cubs. It is a valuable fur animal, meat is edible, now it is widely raised worldwide. This river otter rat was introduced to China, once promoted by unscrupulous businessmen, leading to widespread breeding in rural areas, but eventually many people lost their money.
It is worth heeding that there are still many 'river otter rat' planting and breeding scams like this, anyone who wants to make a fortune and start a business should shine their eyes, otherwise money 'rat' will go out, it's difficult to recover.
“”
