Hispid cotton rat: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the hispid cotton rat lives – recorded in 5 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Sigmodon hispidus
Group	Mice, rats & other rodents
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	5 countries
Continents	North America, South America
Mass	6.8 g (birth weight); 162 g (adult weight)
Class	Mammal
Order	Rodentia
Family	Cricetidae

Where does the hispid cotton rat live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the hispid cotton rat in 5 countries and territories across North America and South America.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

How big is a hispid cotton rat?

Wikidata records the following for the hispid cotton rat: mass 6.8 g (birth weight); 162 g (adult weight).

Is the hispid cotton rat endangered?

The hispid cotton rat’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the hispid cotton rat?

The hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a mammal in the order Rodentia and the family Cricetidae, genus Sigmodon. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About the hispid cotton rat

The hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) is a rat long thought to occur in parts of South America, Central America, and southern North America. However, recent taxonomic revisions, based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data, have split this widely distributed species into three separate species (S. hispidus, S. toltecus, and S. hirsutus). The distribution of S. hispidus ranges from Arizona in the west to Virginia to the east and from the Platte River in Nebraska in the north to, likely, the Rio Grande in the south, where it meets the northern edge of the distribution of S. toltecus (formerly S. h. toltecus). Adult size is total length 202–340 mm (8.0–13.4 in); tail 87–122 mm (3.4–4.8 in), frequently broken or stubbed; hind foot 29–35 mm (1.1–1.4 in); ear 16–20 mm (0.63–0.79 in); mass 50–250 g (1.8–8.8 oz). They have been used as laboratory animals.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Hispid cotton rat (revision 1376363675), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q941564 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).