Thryonomys gregorianus, (THOMAS, 1894)

Antoñanzas, Raquel López, Sen, Sevket & Mein, Pierre, 2004, Systematics and phylogeny of the cane rats (Rodentia: Thryonomyidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 142, pp. 423-444 : 425-426

THRYONOMYS GREGORIANUS (THOMAS, 1894)

Misonne (1971: 7) and Woods (1993: 775) have provided a short revision of extant species of thryonomyids. They concluded that only two species exist at present: T. swinderianus ( Fig. 2) and T. gregorianus . This is widely acknowledged by mammalogists so we shall not reconsider the synonymies of the species listed by Misonne (1971: 7) and Woods (1993: 775), which appear very reasonable and are beyond the scope of this paper.

Thryonomys swinderianus (greater cane rat) is widely distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, exclusive of the arid horn of the continent and much of its south-western part. Thryonomys swinderianus is a semiaquatic dweller of marshy areas and reedbeds. Thryonomys gregorianus (lesser cane rat) occurs approximately from Cameroon to western Ethiopia and south to Zimbabwe. It inhabits drier ground in moist savannahs (see, e.g. Nowak, 1999; Jenkins, 2001).

Remains of T. swinderianus and T. gregorianus have been found in a number of Pleistocene to recent sites across Africa (see, e.g., Dietrich, 1948; Monod, 1970; Wesselman, 1984:174, and Peters, 1990).