Ship Rat Gallery 1

Coloured drawing of grey-bellied ginger ship rat

SHIP RAT GALLERY 1

Photographs of British, Italian and American ship rats.

	Page 1	Colour-varieties and markings.
Go to:	Page 2	Variations in head-shape, ears etc..
Go to:	Page 3	Portraits and personalities.

All animals shown are mine unless otherwise specified.

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To see more photographs of Goobie, visit Kelly Shepard's roof rat web-page.

Horatio, a young "rattus" (pure black) buck from the Rentokil-derived strain: one of the first of the Brantons' hand-reared ship rats. This is the classic "Black Rat" of popular mythology.

Massive ginger ship doe sitting on human shoulder, facing viewer

Charybdis, an enormous warm, gingery white-bellied agouti or "frugivorous" doe: note colour behind ears, dark ear-margins, and long guard-hairs.

Small greyish-ginger ship doe held in human hand

Hickory, a cool greyish frugivorous doe (also a real sweetheart): note colour behind ears.

Young grey-brown buck ship rat kitten with greenish tinge, sitting in human hand

Lucky Goober Scooter (Goobie), a very dark frugivorous Californian roof rat buck (age about 3 weeks here?) found as an orphan and fostered by Ruby Cook. He grew to be a loving, laid-back pet.

Small greyish-ginger ship doe sitting on top of cage, seen from underneath

Hickory, a frugivorous (white-bellied agouti) doe, showing white underside. Unusually for a ship rat, Hicky's ears were pink all the way to the edge.

Brown and black ship buck standing up twanging cage bars

Yoyo, Murdoch's son, a steel buck, showing pale grey underside - and startling muscle-development.

Black and grey ship rat sitting on human hand, seen from rat's right

This may be Hickory's cage-mate and probable sister Charcoal, but is more likely my first ship buck, Murdoch. Whichever it is is a steel - a co-dominant combination of rattus (black) and frugivorous (white-bellied agouti) genes.

Black and grey ship rat held in human hand, seen from rat's left

Murdoch or Charcoal again, showing pale, grizzled flanks. They were both too fast and lively to be photographed except while being held. Steels have a grey stomach, grizzled grey-brown flanks and a black back.

Brown-backed, grey-bellied ship doe standing on red satin cushion

Rachel Donald's Californian grey-bellied agouti or "alexandrinus" doe Rennie showing off her tawny-grey underside and legs - reminiscent of a chocolate and tan show-quality domestic mouse.

Head of ticked-brown ship doe, having her forehead scratched by a human finger

Rennie showing her ticked, agouti-type coat. This is the classic "Alexandrine Rat".

Brown-backed ship doe clinging to sofa-cushion

Rennie showing her ticking again. That's a sofa she's clinging to: she was sniffing the camera, and she wasn't really scratching her ear - that's just an optical illusion.

Ruby Cook's young Californian doe-kit Little, who was rescued and hand-raised along with her littermates Marie and Jeff. Like Rachel Donald's doe Rennie Little is an "alexandrinus", with an agouti back and grey/tawny belly, but with blacker ears and more red in her coat than Rennie has, and an orange demarcation-line between the back and belly coats. This orange line is also seen in mice.

Top view of head of brown, ticked, long-nosed ship rat

Valerie Pfeiffer's alexandrinus buck Tobias from western Canada, showing dark ear-margins.

Brown, ticked ship rat with oatmeal belly, standing on hind legs facing viewer

Tobias showing his very pale, ticked belly.

Ticked, oatmeal-coloured ship rat belly with white V on chest

Tobias has a white V on his chest. This looks more like the sort of very regular marking seen in some species of mouse than like the irregular white spots and splashes common on the undersides of Norway rats, and also sometimes seen in ship rats.

Photograph of very hairy ship rat backside and dark tail with a pale underside

Tobias's two-tone tail, with its pink underside.

Yellow-white buck sitting in shadow with his back to the viewer

Cream or dirty white ship buck: photo' taken at the Deshnok rat-temple of Karni Mata, Rajasthan, India by Francoise Cooperman.

Apricot-coloured rat partly covered by translucent plastic bag, flanked by two very dark rats

Fawn or very dirty white ship rat (certainly with extremely grubby tail) and two steels: photo' taken at the Deshnok by Kees van Duyn. Note delicate pale-pink ears and what would be a pink tail if it wasn't so dirty.