Rattus flavipectus

The individuals are medium-sized. The average body length is about 160mm. The average tail length is longer than the body length, and there are also cases where the tail length of some individuals is shorter than the body length, with an average of 170mm. The back of the forelegs is black in the middle and white on both sides. The fur color of the entire back is uniform, brown-black, with gray hair base, brown-black hair tips, and yellow-brown in the middle. The guard hairs are abundant, yellow-white, and only the tips are brown-black. The fur color from the center of the back to the buttocks is slightly darker, and the black tone is more obvious. The fur color on the sides is lighter, and the yellowish straw color is more obvious. The fur color of the back and abdomen gradually transitions; the abdomen is a prominent straw color, the base of the abdominal hair is gray, and the distal half is straw color. The base and tips of the hair on the chin are both yellow-white. Some individuals

This species first appeared in eastern and northern India. It is distributed in southwest Asia, including southern Afghanistan, central and southern Nepal, Bhutan, northern India, Bangladesh, and enters China through northeastern India. China has a wide distribution, except for the northeast region, it is distributed in other regions, including Hainan Island and Taiwan. It has also expanded to the Korean Peninsula, Indochina Peninsula and the Isthmus of Kra, and Mergui in southern Myanmar. It is unknown whether it is introduced or native in Taiwan and Japan. But it is definitely introduced in the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines and the Sunda Shelf. The Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were also introduced, making it reach the Sulawesi Islands and New Guinea.

The yellow-breasted rat is a domestic and wild amphibian rodent that can nest indoors and build caves in the wild. Its wild habitation is particularly obvious in the southern region with a warm climate, while the yellow

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).