Sahyadris forest rat

The Sahyadris forest rat, Rattus satarae, is a rodent of the family Muridae native to the northern Western Ghats of India, where it is known from three separate regions: Satara in Maharashtra, the Nilgiri mountains in Tamil Nadu and the Kodagu district in Karnataka. It has been recorded only in moist deciduous and evergreen forest between 700 and 2,150 meters above sea level, and it lives almost entirely in nests or burrows in the middle or high canopy, coming to the ground only occasionally near the base of a tree or vine. It eats fruit and insects. The coat is long and soft, golden brown on the back and white underneath, and the tail is very long. The species was first described as a subspecies of the black rat, but DNA evidence shows the two are distinct and do not interbreed even where they share habitat, and their similar appearance is thought to result from convergence. The IUCN lists it as vulnerable because it is restricted to under 2,000 square kilometers of fragmented forest that is being lost to plantations, logging, pesticide use and exotic tree planting.