Rattus satarae Hinton 1918

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Rodentia - Family Muridae, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1189-1531 : 1487

Rattus satarae Hinton 1918

Rattus satarae Hinton 1918 , J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 26: 87.

Type Locality: SW Peninsular India, E margin of Western Ghats (= Sahyadris), Maharashtra State, Satara Dist., Ghatmatha (Crestline), 2000 ft (610 m).

Vernacular Names: Sahyadris Forest Rat.

Distribution: Endemic to the Western Ghats and occurring in tropical evergreen rain forest. Records are from N part of the Western Ghats at and near the type locality ( Hinton, 1918; Tiwari et al., 1971) and Nilgiri Hills (Tamil Nadu State) in the south ( Verneau et al., 1997), which approximates the extent of tropical evergreen rain forest along the SW mountainous margin of SW peninsular India (see Morley, 2000:162); altitudinal range, 1500-2150 m (from data with specimens). Although wet, tropical forests once occurred along the length of the Western Ghats ( Subramanyam and Nayer, 1974), they are presently reduced to small, isolated patches through conversion to agriculture and plantations ( Chandrasekar-Rao and Sunquist, 1996); these forest islands between Satara region and Nilgiri Hills probably also contain R. satarae .