The rats “very much have the personality of something that knows it’s poisonous,” says Sara Weinstein, a biologist at the University of Utah and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute who studies them. close. First documented in the scientific literature in 1867, the rarely-glimpsed African crested rat “has captured so much interest for so long,” said Kwasi Wrensford, a behavioral ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley who wasn’t involved in the study. For their new paper, Dr. Weinstein and her team snared 25 rodents and filmed them in the lab. In the Journal of Mammalogy, they say about half of them chewed on the tree branches and applied poison to their hair. To better understand the ecology of this unusual poisonous mammal, we used camera … Credit: Stephanie Higgins. In the chase that ensued, some of the packets of poop ripped open, scattering scat all about. It’s not for vitamin. A giant rodent known as the African crested rat is, despite its adorable appearance, deadly. Like a skunk, these creatures have black and white markings that may serve as a warning. But these rats turn out to be social, affectionate creatures. This Rat Covers Itself With Poison That Can Take Out an Elephant. Stephanie Higgins The scientists had assumed these rats lived solitary lives, since they're rarely seen and usually seen alone. Give them a chance and African crested rats will take nibbles from the branch of a poison arrow tree. (Image: The University of Utah) Looking like a cross between a ferret, a skunk, and a porcupine, the African crested rat … But the new paper adds weight to an idea described nearly a decade ago, and offers an early glimpse into the animals’ social lives. People in East Africa have long known about the crested rat’s poisonous punch, which has felled many an overcurious dog. "They're actually about the size of a small skunk," she says. It is the only known rodent species to do this, and one of the very few mammals that use poison found in plants for defensive purposes. The African crested rat is the only mammal known to sequester plant toxins for chemical defense. The African crested rat sequesters poisons from Acokanthera schimperi into specialized hairs, shown here alongside typical hairs. The African crested rat sequesters poisons from Acokanthera schimperi into specialized hairs, shown here alongside typical hairs. (Those that survive their encounters tend to give the rats a wide berth.) The rats don’t have to do this very often to remain poisonous. A pair of African crested rats. African crested rat uses poison trick to foil predators. Twitter. When offered cuttings of Acokanthera, some of the animals chomped on the bark then groomed it into their stripes. The behavior truly seemed to have no negative effect on the animals, which remained perfectly active and healthy inside their enclosures, she says, noting that "if I was to go out there and start chewing on this tree, I would get incredibly sick and probably die.". For a rodent that resembles the love child of a skunk and a steel wool brush, the African crested rat carries itself with a surprising amount of swagger. When the two rats were put in the same enclosure, "they started grooming each other and they went into the nest box together," says Weinstein, "which totally changed how we were thinking about these animals and their behavior.". Lophiomys data is apparently precious to simians other than humans as well. In 2011, a team of researchers described the heart-stopping toxins that the rats milked from Acokanthera schimperi, a tree traditionally harvested by hunters who would use its juices to lace their arrows. The research team eventually managed to trap and observe 25 rats. 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