Remarkable rats: '... most [of these Filipino rodents] look nothing like anyone's typical image of a rat. They range from large, furry, long-tailed leaf-eaters to tiny, mouse-like creatures that feed on soft-bodied soil invertebrates.'.

USA Today Magazine › Vol. 133 Nbr. 2716, January 2005

Author: Heaney, Lawrence R.

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Focus on Nature

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Remarkable rats: '... most [of these Filipino rodents] look nothing like anyone's typical image of a rat. They range from large, furry, long-tailed leaf-eaters to tiny, mouse-like creatures that feed on soft-bodied soil invertebrates.'.

BIOLOGISTS are an odd lot--we often get intensely excited about things that leave other people shaking their heads. Who else would spend a couple of months each year in remote tropical mountain ranges, eagerly racing through a fog-shrouded forest at dawn to see what beautiful rats were caught in their traps overnight?

"Come again?" you might ask. "Did you say 'beautiful rats?' They're filthy disease-carrying rodents! Surely you ...

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