White-bellied rat

The white-bellied rat, also called the Himalayan white-bellied rat (Niviventer niviventer), is a rodent of the family Muridae that lives along the Himalayan range. Hodgson described it in 1836 from Kathmandu in Nepal. Later work restricted the name to the Himalayan populations, which reach northern and northeastern India, Nepal and Bhutan, and the species is also listed for Pakistan, with a recent record from northern Vietnam. It lives in temperate coniferous and broadleaf forest and in tropical and subtropical evergreen and riverine forest near streams, up to about 3,600 metres. It is nocturnal, mostly ground-living and burrowing, and probably eats seeds, leaves and some arthropods. It is a small rat, 133 to 160 millimetres from head to body, with a ruby-red back, a pure white belly and a long, rigid, two-colored tail. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern, although fires, shifting cultivation and other habitat loss are its main threats.