Cloud rat


The cloud rats or cloudrunners are a group of arboreal and folivorous nocturnal rodents native to the forests of the Philippines. Locally called as Bu-ot, Siyang, Laksoy, Bugkon or Darauda, there are six known species of true cloud rat, and two dwarf cloud rat species.
Cloud rats are slow-moving herbivores and are thought to be preyed upon by large birds such as the Philippine eagle. The rats are quite large, and they have been hunted by people in the Philippines for their meat, driving the rodents to near extinction.
These animals have not been studied extensively. The Filipino Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau has begun breeding Northern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rats in captivity. Some species of cloud rats are kept in the mini-zoo of the College of Agriculture and Forestry of the West Visayas State University in their Lambunao campus in the province of Iloilo.
Several European and North American zoos also keep and breed cloud rats in captivity; including the London Zoo, Prague Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Wingham Wildlife Park and Chester Zoo.

Species