Sloggett's vlei rat or ice rat (Myotomys sloggetti) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. [2] It is found in southern Lesotho and South Africa where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical high-altitude grassland, swamps, and rocky areas.

2009年5月1日 · Ice rats are diurnal, herbivorous, burrow-dwelling rodents, endemic to the alpine regions of southern Africa. We erected exclosure plots to investigate the single or combined effects of ice rats and domesticated livestock on the vegetation and soil characteristics in their habitat and whether their activities potentially influence soil erosion.

2016年11月23日 · The method of stuffing dry ice — frozen carbon dioxide — into burrows to suffocate rats as it sublimates from a solid to a gas proved more efficient at killing rodents and cheaper than using...

2017年12月17日 · We investigated the reasons for group living in the African ice rat Otomys sloggetti robertsi, a diurnal, herbivorous, nonhibernating murid rodent, endemic to the sub-alpine and alpine regions of...

2006年7月30日 · Ice rats are faced with the conflicting demands of energy intake and energy saving, and in response, they vary their behavioral patterns seasonally. Foraging and basking behaviors are traded-off against reduced exposure to low temperatures in winter, while ice rats escape lethal ambient temperatures and solar radiation levels in summer by ...

2007年10月1日 · In this study, we compared the fur characteristics of O. s. robertsi with five of its close relatives (subfamily Otomyinae) that inhabit warmer environments at lower altitudes, in order to establish whether ice rats have modified their fur characteristics to compensate for their physiological shortcomings.

2013年4月25日 · Whereas lowland species live solitary lives, the ice rats work together to dig burrows, where they huddle up together to keep warm. It sounds harmonious, but it’s not. Pillay and his colleagues...

2013年4月23日 · Ice rats displayed a vertical spatial separation in social behaviour, from huddling and tolerance belowground to solitary foraging and mutual avoidance aboveground.

Ice Rats live at high altitude including the summit of Mont-aux-Sources which is 3,282 metres high! It is endemic to South Africa and Lesotho.

2021年1月29日 · The phylogeny of several Otomyinae species is enigmatic, and Otomys sloggetti (Sloggett’s vlei rat) is no exception. This species has been referred to as the ‘ice rat’ and present distribution ranges are seemingly limited to mountainous areas, at high altitude, in Lesotho Drakensberg and the Karoo.