Random Week: Gregarious Short-tailed Rat (Brachyuromys ramirohitra)
This week, I’m drawing mammals selected randomly by random.org. Each day, it’s a surprise to me, and this should be a good way to get through some of the mammals that I would be unlikely to choose on my own…like this one, the gregarious short-tailed rat. Nothing against him, but there’s very little information available about him and very few photographs for reference, and those are the ones I usually put off in the hopes that somebody will have taken pictures of them by the time I get around to them again. But picking them randomly doesn’t allow for that. And I have to tell you, it’s satisfying to draw one of the obscure guys, one where I have to really dig to find even a reliable description. It’s a job-well-done, wiping-my-hands-with-pleasure kind of feeling.
So, here is the gregarious short-tailed rat. He looks friendly enough, doesn’t he? These rats are endemic to eastern Madagascar, where they live in forests and fields, making grassy tunnels and evading capture.
You’re playing down the amount of time and research it took you to find a photo of this guy. You really hunted him down! Great job!
I really like the texture of this rat’s fur. You can really feel the slightly wiry quality of it. Another great job.
I don’t know if it’s intentional, but I found it funny that the post ends on “evading capture” given how much effort it took for you to look up enough info about this critter!
Just wanted to say, your picture arrived today, and it is GORGEOUS! Thank you so much, and for doing it all for charity which meant I finally had a good excuse to buy one of your drawings :D