Thryonomys swinderianus ( Temminck, 1827 )

Denys, Christiane, Missoup, Alain Didier, Nicolas, Violaine, Sylla, Morlaye, Douno, Mory, Kadjo, Blaise, Lalis, Aude & Monadjem, Ara, 2025, Annotated checklist of rodents from a biodiversity hotspot, Mount Nimba (West Africa), Zoosystema 47 (27), pp. 617-689 : 658

Thryonomys swinderianus ( Temminck, 1827)

Aulacodus swinderianus Temminck, 1827: 248 .

REMARKS

A damaged skull (MNHN-ZM-2021-1807) and a mandible with juvenile molars (MNHN-ZM-2021-1806) were collected in the grassland of the Mare d’hivernage at 1655 m and some living animals of this genus were observed on various occasions. The only species of cane-rat recorded in West Africa is T. swinderianus , which is very common in all moist grasslands and swamps. This rodent was neither reported from Mount Nimba by Gautun et al. (1986), nor by Coe (1975). Misonne & Verschuren (1976) did not collect it, but indicated characteristic tracks and runways in altitude savanna at Mount Richard Molard and in Duleyela. In the Guinean side of the Mount, 70 individuals of T. swinderianus were captured by hunters in 2004-2005 ( Dufour 2006).

We assign the two specimens to the species T. swinderianus because the other species, T. gregorianus , does not occur in West Africa ( Monadjem et al. 2015).

The broken skull MNHN-ZM-1807 shows a large orange striated incisor with three grooves. The specimen had been burnt (human consumption? or seasonal fire?). It is a juvenile because only two molars are visible in the upper maxillae. The mandible MNHN-ZM-2021-1806 displays only three molars and no DP/4. The skull MNHN-ZM-MO-1987-128 from Lamotte’s collection also displays naso-frontal suture rectilinear and the trilophodont molars, the dental morphology typical of T. swinderianus .