ZSL London Zoo "Crested Ridge Rat"

[sooty mangabey]

A fairly esoteric enquiry!

In the 1962 annual report for the ZSL, two "crested ridge rats" are listed as having joined the collection; no scientific name is given.

Given that the Red-crested Ridge Rat (Santamartamys rufodorsalis) is only known from three specimens, I don't think it was this. Santamartamys - Wikipedia.

Does anybody with knowledge of obscure rodents, or of London Zoo, or of both, have any ideas what this species right have been?

 

[Tim May]

In the 1962 annual report for the ZSL, two "crested ridge rats" are listed as having joined the collection; no scientific name is given.

I am not familiar with the name crested ridge rat although crested rat is, of course, an alternative name for the maned rat Lophiomys imhausi.

It is frustrating that the ZSL Annual Reports of that era do not supply the scientific names of all species acquired during the year; scientific names are only provided for species (or sub-species) that have never previously been in the zoo’s collection.

The crested ridge rat does not feature in the section of the 1962 Annual Report that lists taxa new to the collection, so the species had obviously been in the zoo before 1962.

However, no species with the vernacular name crested ridge rat features in Flower’s 1929 work listing all the mammal species exhibited during the zoo’s first century. I also have an extensive collection of old ZSL Annual Reports covering the intervening years between Flower’s list and the 1962 report and cannot find any reference to a species with that name either. Unfortunately, I do have a few gaps in my collection though and, of course, it could be listed under a different common name.

Further investigation is needed.

 

[Dassie rat]

Thanks Tim. I agree with you. Zootierliste doesn't list the maned rat as a former occupant at London Zoo, but I have seen pictures of the species in zoo publications. I can check if any of the photos are listed as being taken at London Zoo. 'The Mammals' by Desmond Morris has a photo of a maned rat photographed by Frank Pocklington for Granada TV. I have only seen one captive crested rat, some time in the 1970s, but Zootierliste doesn't list a possible zoo where I saw it.

 

[Chlidonias]

they were maned rats.

If anyone has access to it, they are mentioned complete with generic name as a new addition to the zoo in the "Notes and Abstracts Meetings of the Society for Scientific Business" (pages 527-534) in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (October 1962 - Volume 139, issue 3).

...and two Crested Ridge rats, Lophiomys species...

 

[Tim May]

they were maned rats.

If anyone has access to it, they are mentioned complete with generic name as a new addition to the zoo in the "Notes and Abstracts Meetings of the Society for Scientific Business" (pages 527-534) in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (October 1962 - Volume 139, issue 3).

Thanks for this. As mentioned earlier, I knew that crested rat was another name for maned rat but hadn't encountered the name crested ridge rat before so wondered if they might have been something different.

 

[Chlidonias]

yes, I'd never heard that name before either, but I think it must refer to the ridges along the skull which are distinctive in the species (if you are looking at the skull, of course, and not a living animal).

 

[sooty mangabey]

Thank you for these superb answers! There's a Bruce Springsteen bootleg called "Don't Try To Stump the E-Street Band" - whatever request is made to the band, they can play it. I feel the same way about this community, sometimes: even fantastically obscure questions can be answered, with insight, knowledge and reference to reliable sources!

 

[sooty mangabey]

they are mentioned complete with generic name as a new addition to the zoo in the "Notes and Abstracts Meetings of the Society for Scientific Business" (pages 527-534) in Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (October 1962 - Volume 139, issue 3).

The slightly baffling thing here is that, in the corresponding annual report, they're not listed as a species new to the collection, as far as I know.

 

[Chlidonias]

The slightly baffling thing here is that, in the corresponding annual report, they're not listed as a species new to the collection, as far as I know.

sorry I made a confusing post, in the context - how I meant it was simply as they were newly arrived at the zoo, not that they were a previously-unkept species at the zoo. What I wrote could have been taken either way. The notes simply say they were purchased.

 

[Tim May]

The slightly baffling thing here is that, in the corresponding annual report, they're not listed as a species new to the collection, as far as I know.

Indeed, as mentioned in one of my earlier posts, they are not listed as a species new to the collection in the 1962 Annual report.

No rodents with the common name crested rat, maned rat or crested ridge rat, or the generic name Lophiomys, are featured in Flower's work listing all the species at London Zoo during its first one hundred years; nor can I find any reference to these names in any of my ZSL Annual Reports for the intervening years between Flower's book and the 1962 Annual Report.

I am now curious to find out when maned rats were first acquired by London Zoo.

 

[Tim May]

Whilst searching through the London Zoo Daily Occurrences Book for 1962 in connection with another query on mountain beavers, I also gleaned a little more information about the crested ridge rats.

Two crested ridge rats were purchased from Frank Farrar (Southport Zoological Society) on 3rd May 1962; one died on 15th September 1962 and the other died 27th December 1962.

 

[Tim May]

The slightly baffling thing here is that, in the corresponding annual report, they're not listed as a species new to the collection, as far as I know.

As previously discussed in this thread:

London Zoo must have acquired its first maned (or crested) rats sometime after 1927 (as the species doesn't feature in Flower's list) and sometime before 1962 (as the species is not listed as "new to the collection" in the 1962 Annual Report).

Whilst in the ZSL Library this afternoon I found out that London Zoo acquired its first crested rats when four specimens were purchased on 26th May 1933. The species is listed as "new to the collection" in the 1933 Annual Report.