Rattus satarae Hinton 1918

Rattus satarae Hinton 1918, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 26: 87.

Type Locality: SW Peninsular India, E margin of Western Ghats (= Sahyadris), Maharashtra State, Satara Dist., Ghatmatha (Crestline), 2000 ft (610 m).

Vernacular Names: Sahyadris Forest Rat.

Distribution: Endemic to the Western Ghats and occurring in tropical evergreen rain forest. Records are from N part of the Western Ghats at and near the type locality (Hinton, 1918; Tiwari et al., 1971) and Nilgiri Hills (Tamil Nadu State) in the south (Verneau et al., 1997), which approximates the extent of tropical evergreen rain forest along the SW mountainous margin of SW peninsular India (see Morley, 2000:162); altitudinal range, 1500-2150 m (from data with specimens). Although wet, tropical forests once occurred along the length of the Western Ghats (Subramanyam and Nayer, 1974), they are presently reduced to small, isolated patches through conversion to agriculture and plantations (Chandrasekar-Rao and Sunquist, 1996); these forest islands between Satara region and Nilgiri Hills probably also contain R. satarae .