Description
The Arizona cotton rat has a typical rat-like appearance, and is sufficiently similar to the hispid cotton rat that it was considered to be part of the same species until 1970, when genetic analysis confirmed its distinct nature. It has bristly brownish fur over most of its body, with whitish underparts and grey feet. The scaly tail is dark in color, with very sparse fur. Adults range from 25 to 36 centimetres (9.8 to 14 in) in total length, including the 10 to 15 centimetres (3.9 to 5.9 in) long tail, and weigh anything from 83 to 300 grams (2.9 to 11 oz). Males are slightly larger than females, but the two sexes are otherwise similar in appearance.
Females have ten or twelve teats, suggesting a maximum litter size of around this number. Reproduction is thought to occur year-round.
Read more about this topic: Arizona Cotton Rat
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The Sage of Toronto ... spent several decades marveling at the numerous freedoms created by a “global village” instantly and effortlessly accessible to all. Villages, unlike towns, have always been ruled by conformism, isolation, petty surveillance, boredom and repetitive malicious gossip about the same families. Which is a precise enough description of the global spectacle’s present vulgarity.”
—Guy Debord (b. 1931)
“He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“A sound mind in a sound body, is a short, but full description of a happy state in this World: he that has these two, has little more to wish for; and he that wants either of them, will be little the better for anything else.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)