By Rafi Letzter,
Staff Writer | June 6, 2019 03:48pm ET
Scientists
have named two newfound species of tweezer-beaked, hopping rats that are super
not into peanut butter. Please offer them earthworms instead, thank you very
much.
The critters
are "docile" and long-nosed, and they hop around mountains in the
Philippines looking for earthworms — the rats' preferred food. It appears that
different species of the rats are isolated from one another in the upper
reaches of individual mountains in the region, where the animals proliferate in
surprisingly large numbers. One of the newfound species is named Rhynchomys
labo (more or less Greek for "snout mouse of Mount Labo"),
and the other is named Rhynchomys mingan ("snout mouse of
Mount Mingan").
"They're
quite bizarre," Eric Rickart, a curator of the Natural History Museum of
Utah and lead author of the new descriptions, said in a statement. "They
hop around on their sturdy hind legs and large hind feet, almost like little
kangaroos. They have long, delicate snouts and almost no chewing teeth."
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