The yellow-breasted rat belongs to the Murinae subfamily. The scientific name of the yellow-breasted rat is very confusing, and it was once used as <Rattus flavipectus> for a long time. Musser & Carleton (2005) restored <Rattus tanezumi> as the species name of the yellow-breasted rat, and considered it to be a member of the original <Rattus rattus> with a chromosome number of 2n=42 representing Asia. It belongs to the <Rattus rattus> species group. The classification of this species is also very confusing. In the world, there are 81 taxa that are considered to be synonyms or subspecies of the yellow-breasted rat, and there are 6 taxa in China. The yellow-breasted rat lives in villages, farmlands, brick-wood-tile-roofed houses and other areas closely related to human activities. In the Yangtze River Basin, it mainly lives in houses. Roofs, corrugated tiles, wall cracks and ceilings are often its hiding places and activities. With the continuous expansion of urbanization, the rat has quickly adapted to modern buildings and urban environments, becoming a dominant species in high-rise buildings in southern cities, mostly active in pipes, suspended ceilings and pipe wells. Natural enemies include cats, owls and snakes.
The yellow-breasted rat is active during the day and night, mainly at night, with two peaks of activity after dusk and before dawn.
It can carry out short-term seasonal migration in residential areas and farmland, and often migrate seasonally to cause damage in farmland according to the maturity of crops. According to the early or late maturity of crops, the seasonal migration order of the yellow-breasted rat in Rongjiang County is: pea field - wheat field - peanut field and rice field - sweet potato field - cassava field and taro field.
Omnivorous, but mainly feeds on plant food, including grains, beans, vegetables, potatoes, flour and its products; animal food includes meat, fish, insects, snails and earthworms, etc., and will also attack chickens. It prefers sweet potatoes, potatoes, radishes, vegetables and steamed buns and other foods rich in water. In apple storage warehouses, it is highly destructive to apples and is one of the main pests in the storage warehouse.
The caves of the yellow-breasted rat are mostly built under graves, rock crevices and other thorny bushes that cannot be cultivated in dry land on hillsides. They are often found on ridges and canals on the edge of fields, and under piles of shrubs and gravel on riverbanks.
The yellow-breasted rat is an uncommon Chinese medicine. Skin (freshly peeled or sun-dried and soaked): has the effect of draining pus and healing sores, and can treat sores and pus infiltration; Liver: promotes blood circulation and removes blood stasis, detoxifies and heals wounds; Gallbladder (fresh or dried): can dispel wind, treat sores and wounds; Kidney: calms the nerves, sulfur liver and regulates qi; Eye (dried and ground into powder): can wake up from sleepiness; Feces (boiled in wine and applied externally or taken internally): taken internally to treat epilepsy, applied externally to induce pus; Blood (fresh): treat rosacea; Young rats (baked and ground into powder): detoxifies and heals sores, stops bleeding and relieves pain, and can resolve botulism.
The external parasites of the yellow-breasted rat include fleas, ticks, lice and mites, and the internal parasites include protozoa, flukes, tapeworms and nematodes. In addition, the yellow-breasted rat is a reservoir host for many bacteria, rickettsiae and filterable viruses. Due to its seasonal migration habits and wide range of habitats, the yellow-breasted rat can carry many different pathogens and spread a variety of zoonotic diseases. It is currently known that the yellow-breasted rat is an important vector of many traditional insect-borne diseases such as plague (Yersinia pestis), hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (Hantavirus), leptospirosis and scrub typhus. It has also been confirmed to be a pathogen vector for emerging infectious diseases such as Cryptosporidium, Yersinia and Bartonella.
This species is listed in the 2013 Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) ver3.1--Vulnerable (VU).