CreatureData

Long-haired rat

Rattus villosissimus (Waite, 1898)

LCLeast Concernrodents

The long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus) is a species in the family Muridae, order Rodentia. Recorded adults weigh 134 g to 193.5 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the long-haired rat

Weight
134 g – 193.5 gsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Herbivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Gestation
21.9 dayssrc for Gestation
Young per litter or clutch
6src for Young per litter or clutch
Age at maturity
63 dayssrc for Age at maturity
Litters or clutches a year
4src for Litters or clutches a year
Active
At night (nocturnal)src for Active
Lifestyle
Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

Photos of the long-haired rat

Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.

1 more photo exists under a licence we cannot display: view at source.

Where does the long-haired rat live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The long-haired rat is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Why a country list is not a range map

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the long-haired rat?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus), is a species of rodent in the family Muridae which is native to Australia. The long-haired rat is well known for its population irruptions over vast areas of Australia which is the basis of its alternative common name, the plague rat. Most of the research on the long-haired rat has been conducted during times of massive population fluctuations and therefore little is known about their biology in a non-eruptive period.

From the Wikipedia article “Long-haired rat” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Long-haired_rat&oldid=1358895045), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the long-haired rat endangered?

The long-haired rat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species. What the categories mean.

How is the long-haired rat classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classMammalia
  4. orderRodentia
  5. familyMuridae
  6. genusRattus
  7. SpeciesRattus villosissimus (Waite, 1898)

Synonyms Mus longipilis, Mus villosissimus, Rattus villosissimus profusus

Other names and names in other languages (11)
  • Australian long-haired ratEnglish
  • Australian long-haired ratEnglish
  • Plague ratEnglish
  • جرذ الطاعونArabic
  • جرذ طويل الأوبارArabic
  • Australische LanghaarratteGerman
  • pitkäkarvarottaFinnish
  • ケナガクマネズミJapanese
  • LanghårrotteNorwegian Bokmål
  • szczur długowłosyPolish
  • Длинноволосая крысаRussian

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the long-haired rat

Other species in the same genus Rattus.

LC, Least Concern
Brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)

Brown rat

Rattus norvegicus

Muridae

LC, Least Concern
Black rat (Rattus rattus)

Black rat

Rattus rattus

Muridae

LC, Least Concern
Summit rat (Rattus baluensis)

Summit rat

Rattus baluensis

Muridae

LC, Least Concern
Bush rat (Rattus fuscipes)

Bush rat

Rattus fuscipes

Muridae

CompareLong-haired rat vs Brown ratLong-haired rat vs Black ratLong-haired rat vs Polynesian ratLong-haired rat vs Ricefield rat

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the long-haired rat?

An adult long-haired rat weighs 134 g – 193.5 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the long-haired rat live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the long-haired rat for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the long-haired rat endangered?

The long-haired rat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

How long is the long-haired rat pregnant?

The recorded gestation period is 21.9 days.

What kind of animal is the long-haired rat?

The long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus) belongs to the family Muridae in the order Rodentia.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-haired-rat

MLA

“Long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-haired-rat.

BibTeX
@misc{long_haired_rat_2026,
  title = {Long-haired rat (Rattus villosissimus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/long-haired-rat},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}