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This strikingly beautiful rat has a chunky body, long tricoloured tail and tawny and orange fur. The upper parts are tawny peppered with black and the under parts are bright orange-brown. The fur is rough but not coarse. The uniform colour of the head is broken up around the eyes, each of which is set within a narrow ring of darkly pigmented skin that is circled by a ring of skin with short and pale brown hairs. The relatively long tail is tricoloured: the basal 30 mm is about the same colour and texture as that of the upper parts of the body, and the rest of the tail is covered with short bristly hairs; the proximal half is black, and the distal half is white. Hairs at the tail tip are slightly softer and longer than elsewhere and form a tuft.
Little is known about the ecology of this species, but in january 2012 a lone individual was seen climbing in primary forest canopy at night, so it is likely to be arboreal and nocturnal.
The holotype is from disturbed lowland forest, near a logging road. The species may be dependent on primary forest. The individual seen in january 2012 was in an undisturbed forest habitat, but it is not known whether this species is able to persist in secondary forest. The species is small for a cloud rat which occurs in the canopy.
This species which is endemic to the Philippines was known only from a single specimen collected between 1974 and 1975 from Balitbiton, Loreto municipality, Surigao del Norte Province, Dinagat island.
Several teams of biologists have visited Dinagat briefly but specific surveys for this species have not been performed and the species was not located. However, in january 2012, two Czech researchers recorded still and video footage of an individual bushy-tailed cloud rat in a semi-protected watershed reserve site on central-north Dinagat Island, scientifically confirmed after they returned from the island. The extent of the species range is still unknown.
The species may occur also on adjacent islands, especially Siargao and Bucas Grande, where Podogymnura aureospinula, previously only known from Dinagat, is now known to occur. Local people on the nearby island of Siargao reported seeing an arboreal rat resembling Crateromys australis but this still needs to be confirmed.
One live individual found in a semi-protected watershed reserve site on central-north Dinagat Island.
Targeted surveys are urgently needed on Dinagat to determine the species’ range, especially in the north-central area of pristine forest where one individual was found, and also on Siargao and Bucas Grande islands to ascertain if it occurs there. Surveys of this species could potentially be undertaken under the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) required for mining projects.
Musser, G. G., Heaney, L. R. and Rabor, D. S. 1985. Philippine rats: Description of a new species of Crateromys from Dinagat Island. American Museum Novitates 2821: 1-25.
Oliver, W. L. R., Cox, C. R., Gonzales, P. C. and Heaney, L. R. 1993. Cloud rats in the Philippines--Preliminary report on distribution and status. Oryx 27: 41-48
Ong, P., Tabaranza, B., Rosell-Ambal, G., Balete, D. & Heaney, L. 2008. Crateromys australis. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 13 August 2011.
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