Afroalpine Vlei Rat

The afroalpine vlei rat (Otomys orestes) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in the high moorlands of Kenya.^[1]

Taxonomy

In Musser and Carleton (2005), this species included a number of subspecies.

Otomys thomasi (Thomas's vlei rat), which was initially described as a species by Osgood in 1910, was included under O. orestes in their work, alongside.^[2] However, Taylor et al. (2011) found that O. thomasi, O. zinki (Mount Kilimanjaro vlei rat) and others subspecies were distinct from O. orestes.^[3][4]

References

• Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1528–1529. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
• Taylor, P. & Maree, S. 2004. Otomys orestes. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 9 July 2007.