Lesser bandicoot rat

The lesser bandicoot rat (Bandicota bengalensis), also called the Sindhi rice rat, Bengal rat or Indian mole-rat, is a large rat of southern Asia in the family Muridae. Despite the name it is not related to the true bandicoots, which are marsupials; the word comes from the Telugu pandikokku, loosely pig-rat. The head and body measure around 250 millimetres, with a shorter, uniformly dark tail, and the fur is dark or occasionally pale brown above and grey below. It is a serious pest of cereal crops and gardens in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and also enters village houses. It digs extensive burrows with sleeping chambers, galleries and hidden bolt-holes, stocks storage chambers with grain at harvest, and grunts harshly when disturbed. Active at night or at twilight, it eats grains, fruit and invertebrates, breeds prolifically, and carries diseases that include plague and leptospirosis.