Timor rat

The Timor rat, also called the Timor forest rat (Rattus timorensis), is a rodent of the family Muridae from the Indonesian island of Timor. It was described by Kitchener, Aplin and Boeadi in 1991 from a single specimen collected near the summit of Gunung Mutis in West Timor, at about 1,900 metres, and it is still known only from that type locality. It is a small, distinctive rat with soft, fairly long fur that is olive-brown above with dark guard hairs, tawny on the sides and light buff underneath, with white forefeet and a tail that is gray above and white below. The type specimen measures about 157 millimetres from head to body and weighs 112 grams. Fossil fragments from Timor may belong to this species, and its relationships are unclear enough that it may not belong in the genus Rattus. The IUCN classes it as Data Deficient, and it seems to be extremely rare because burning and grazing have destroyed much of the forest on Timor.