Bamboo mouse: I'm not suffering from heatstroke. I'm not depressed. I'm not pretty. Don't burn me.

Recently, the most popular up owner is a pair of bamboo rat breeders from Jiangxi, who eat their own bamboo rats under the pretext of "he has depression,"he has heatstroke,"he fights and suffers internal injuries,"he eats too much to support,"he is too thin to go on like this," and so on. The simple and magical language quickly gained more than 500,000 attention and became the source of happiness for all.

Bamboo mouse: I am not, I am not, you spread me. Original picture: Huanong Brothers

Gluttonous big fat bamboo rat

Bamboo mouse, also known as bamboo beaver, bamboo weasel, bamboo root rat, thatched root rat, barmao mouse and so on, gets its name from its fondness for eating bamboo. Bamboo rats may not have the same preference for bamboo as giant pandas who are bamboo lovers.

Orange teeth, like to click some bamboo! Picture: Khaosok

Bamboo mouse is not a single species. In animal taxonomy, it generally refers to the animals of the subfamily Rhinopodidae of the mammary rodent.

There are two genera and five species of bamboo mice distributed in China, among which C. badius, a single genus species of Cannomys, is similar to mice in size, and is quite different from our impression, and the number is less, only distributed in some areas of Yunnan, China (the number of bamboo mice is more in southern Asia, such as Thailand and other regions).

The bamboo mouse in the market looks like a mouse at first glance. Picture: Roadnottaken / Wikipedia

Rhizomys includes R. sinensis, R. pruinosus, R. sumatrensis and R. vestitus, which are mainly distributed in the south of the Yangtze River in China, especially in Guangxi and Yungui. Most of the videos of the bully brothers in rural China are silver star bamboo mice.

The specimen of Silver Star Bamboo Rat from Kunming Animal Museum. Picture: Daderot

A wild bamboo rat caught in Laos is caged and sold along the street. Rattus norvegicus is the largest bamboo rat, characterized by orange-red hairy cheeks. Photo: the creature man who runs the aquarium

Who is the food eaten in fancy style?

China began to try to domesticate and breed bamboo rats artificially since the 1980s, and achieved success in artificial breeding in the early 1990s, which has a history of more than 20 years. At present, there are many bamboo rat breeding bases with a certain scale in southern China, especially in Guangxi and Jiangxi. Most of the artificially domesticated bamboo rats are Chinese bamboo rats and silver star bamboo rats.

Chinese bamboo rat in Tam Road National Park, Vietnam. Picture: Mark Moffett

The Chinese bamboo mouse has a fat, round body and a short, hairless tail. The body length of wild adults is 30cm to 40cm and the weight is 1.52kg. It can grow to nearly 3 kilograms in captivity. Its head is round and big, its mouth is short and round, and its upper front teeth are very thick. The first pair of incisors are permanent teeth, which are born and do not take off. Like most rodents, they grow as they grow and need to be worn away by eating hard objects in order to maintain the normal bite of the upper and lower incisors. If the incisors are not rubbed, they will grow longer and longer until they stab the gums or the top of the lower teeth pierce the upper jaw, leaving them unable to eat and starve to death.

If the tooth is too long, it needs to be cut off. In the video, it is a pet guinea pig. Source: chennnnnnns / YouTube

Its body color is grayish black, and the color of the back hair will slowly change to brown with age. Its limbs are strong, its claws are sharp, and it is good at digging caves. The five fingers of the front claws are flexible, and you can use the forelimbs to grasp, hold, hold and other movements of food. It is interesting to see them nibbling on sugar cane and bamboo in an artificial culture environment.

Fat house's dream: to be able to eat delicious food lying down every day. Photo: Huanong Brothers

The silver star bamboo mouse, also known as the white bamboo mouse, is similar to the Chinese bamboo mouse in appearance and habits, but its size is slightly larger. The adult weight is about 2 kg in the wild and can reach 3-4 kg in the farmed state. Its coat is grayish brown, and the back hair has many white needle hairs protruding from the coat, as if covered with a layer of white frost, and the reflection of the white needle is very obvious in the light. To tell whether it is a Chinese star or a silver star, just look at the fur.

Yinxing bamboo rodents are larger and are the main species in the edible market at present, and the amount of artificial breeding accounts for about 70% of the total amount of artificial breeding of bamboo rats. However, because there is no reproductive isolation between the two kinds of bamboo rats, hybridization often occurs in mixed breeding. Even the individuals used by farmers to breed rats may be hybrid offspring.

Bamboo rats, they really get heatstroke.

Bamboo rats are nocturnal animals and like cool and dry environments. Wild bamboo rats mainly live in bamboo forests and shrubs. They are good at digging holes and will dig a complex cave to live in. The cave will have several openings, including the main tunnel, cave nest, feeding cave and refuge cave, etc., the depth, number and complexity will vary according to the topography. The main tunnel is 30 to 80 centimeters from the surface, and materials such as hay and bamboo leaves will be used to cushion the nest. They are very clean and will not defecate in the cave where they rest, but will go to another attached hole specially used for excretion.

Wild bamboo rats feed on bamboo, bamboo roots, mango stalks, reeds, and other shrubs, root tubers of plants, and have a wide range of food habits and tolerance to coarse food. They are usually sleeping during the day, burrowing at night, looking for food, playing and mating, and they are most active from evening to early morning.

Bamboo rats have a very sensitive sense of hearing and smell, and can smell food from the soil. However, because they have been living in caves for a long time, they are less dependent on vision, so their eyesight is not good, and they are not adapted to the direct sunlight during the day. They are timid and will hide in caves when the wind blows, but when they have nowhere to hide, they may demonstrate with upright bodies blowing.

The life span of bamboo rats is short, in about 4-5 years, adult bamboo rats can be identified by observing and touching the top of their anus, such as a pair of protruding eggs, that is, male. The time from birth to sexual maturity is from half a year to one year, and the pregnancy period of female rats is from one and a half months to two months. The newborn mice had no hair on their body surface and closed their eyes tightly. After the full moon, they gradually weaned and began to learn to feed on their own.

Bamboo rodents are resistant to cold and heat, lack of sweat glands and densely covered with hair, so that the body surface heat is not easy to emit, and the ability to regulate body temperature is poor. The environmental temperature it can tolerate is 5-35 ℃, and the most suitable environmental temperature for growth, development and mating reproduction is 18-28 ℃. When the ambient temperature is higher than 35 ℃ for a long time, they are extremely prone to heatstroke and death.

It's not a random excuse? Photo: Huanong Brothers

Huanong Brothers' video says that when you get heatstroke, you can bury it in the wet sand to save it, but after a long time, there is no way to save it. The symptoms of heatstroke Huanong Brothers also said that the bamboo rat with heatstroke is depressed, weak all over the body, often lying on his side, touching the body can feel a significant increase in body temperature, a sense of burning. As for the bamboo rats who are unable to return to heaven, there is only one way to deal with them-- to enter the Wuzang Temple.

Bamboo mouse meat is delicate and delicious, and its fur is thick, soft and glossy. It is a good raw material for fur products and has high economic value. And after artificial breeding, bamboo mice will have some individuals with gentle character and special color (such as albinism) who can be used as pets.

It's not a dream to have a fat white bamboo mouse like a boy! Photo: Huanong Brothers

Huanong brothers can't be casually.

However, bamboo rats can not be raised at will. They are three protected animals in China or key protected terrestrial wild animals in provinces such as Guangxi (each province lists them at different levels of protection). If you want to raise bamboo rats, you need to go to the local forestry department to declare in accordance with the provisions of relevant laws and regulations, and you can raise them only after obtaining a "domestication and breeding license." if it involves the sale and sale of bamboo rats and catering, you also need to obtain a "license for operation and utilization".

Beside the point, if you see bamboo rats in the wild, don't catch them at will. Although they look cute and cute in the video, most wild individuals are not tame and rise up when they feel their lives are threatened, and their long and sharp front teeth are their most powerful weapon. And bamboo rodents, as the main host of Penicillium marneffei, may infect immunocompromised contacts with Penicillium marneffei. (editor: Sydney addicted to bamboo mice)

This article is a special contribution to the species calendar, from the author of the species calendar @ a biological man who runs an aquarium.

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