Oryzomys gorgasi
| Oryzomys gorgasi | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Synapsida |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Cricetidae |
| Genus: | Oryzomys |
| Species: | O. O. gorgasi |
| Binomial name | |
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Oryzomys O. gorgasi Hershkovitz, 1971 |
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| Distribution of Oryzomys gorgasi (blue) and the related O. couesi (red) in northwestern South America. | |
| Synonyms | |
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Oryzomys gorgasi, also known as Gorgas's oryzomys or Gorgas's rice rat, is a rodent in the genus Oryzomys of family Cricetidae. First collected as a living animal in 1967, it is known from only a few localities, including a freshwater swamp in the lowlands of northwestern Colombia and a mangrove islet in northwestern Venezuela. It formerly occurred on the island of Curaçao off northwestern Venezuela; this extinct population has been described as a separate species, Oryzomys curasoae, but does not differ morphologically from mainland populations.
Oryzomys gorgasi is a medium-sized, brownish species with large, semiaquatically specialized feet. It differs from other Oryzomys species in several features of its skull. Its diet includes crustaceans, insects, and plant material, and parasitic nematodes infect it. The species is listed as "Endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature due to destruction of its habitat and competition with the introduced black rat (Rattus rattus).
Oryzomys gorgasi was first found in Antioquia Department of northwestern Colombia in 1967 during an expedition by the U.S. Army Medical Department and the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory. In 1971, Field Museum zoologist Philip Hershkovitz described a new species, Oryzomys gorgasi, on the basis of the single known specimen, an old male. He named the animal after physician William Crawford Gorgas, the namesake of the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory. Hershkovitz considered the new species most closely related to Oryzomys palustris, which at the time included North and Central American populations now divided into several species, including the marsh rice rat (O. palustris) and O. couesi. The species was not recorded again until 2001, when Venezuelan zoologist J. Sánchez H. and coworkers reported on 11 specimens collected in coastal northwestern Venezuela in 1992, 700 km (430 mi) from the Colombian locality. They confirmed that O. gorgasi is a distinct species related to the O. palustris group.
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