Stein's rat
Rattus steini Rümmler, 1935
The stein's rat (Rattus steini) is a species in the family Muridae, order Rodentia. Recorded adults weigh 153.1 g to 155 g. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.
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Quick facts about the stein's rat
- Weight
- 155 gsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Gestation
- 22.8 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 3.58src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 3.52 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- 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
Where does the stein's 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 stein's rat is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the stein's rat?
Stein's rat (Rattus steini), also known as the small spiny rat, is a species of rodent in the family Muridae.
It is found in West Papua, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
From the Wikipedia article “Stein's rat” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Stein%27s_rat&oldid=1381904249), 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 stein's rat endangered?
The stein's rat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- 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 stein's rat classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderRodentia
- familyMuridae
- genusRattus
- SpeciesRattus steini Rümmler, 1935
Synonyms Rattus leucopus steini
Other names and names in other languages (12)
- Small spiny ratEnglish
- Small spiny ratEnglish
- Stein s New Guinea ratEnglish
- Stein's New Guinea ratEnglish
- Stein’s New Guinea ratEnglish
- Stein’s New Guinea ratEnglish
- Stein’s ratEnglish
- krysa SteinovaCzech
- irianjayanrottaFinnish
- スタインクマネズミJapanese
- szczur papuaskiPolish
- Крыса ШтейнаRussian
Relatives of the stein's rat
Other species in the same genus Rattus.
Brown rat
Rattus norvegicus
Black rat
Rattus rattus
Polynesian rat
Rattus exulans
Ricefield rat
Rattus argentiventer
Summit rat
Rattus baluensis
Bush rat
Rattus fuscipes
CompareStein's rat vs Brown ratStein's rat vs Black ratStein's rat vs Polynesian ratStein's rat vs Ricefield rat
Common questions
Answered only where our data holds the answer.
How big is the stein's rat?
An adult stein's rat weighs 155 g, according to values recorded on Wikidata.
Where does the stein's rat live?
Catalogue of Life checklists list the stein's rat for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.
Is the stein's rat endangered?
The stein's rat is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.
How long is the stein's rat pregnant?
The recorded gestation period is 22.8 days.
What kind of animal is the stein's rat?
The stein's rat (Rattus steini) 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.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Stein's rat (Rattus steini). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/steins-rat
“Stein's rat (Rattus steini).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/steins-rat.
@misc{steins_rat_2026,
title = {Stein's rat (Rattus steini)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/steins-rat},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}