Wildlifeof Vietnam
Indomalayan Spiny Rat
Rats, Mice, Voles & Porcupines
Photo: ꦥꦤ꧀ꦗꦶꦒꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦶꦄꦏ꧀ꦧꦂ (iNaturalist) · CC BY 4.0
Crunomys surifer
Rare visitor: recorded only occasionally in this country
Basic stats
Range
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei
Size
Northern Vietnamese form: head and body 170-222 mm, tail 193-227 mm, weight 127-210 g
The Indomalayan spiny rat, also called the red spiny rat, is a ground-living rodent of tropical forest that ranges from Myanmar and Indochina south through the Malay Peninsula to Indonesia. It was described by G. S. Miller in 1900 from a mountain in peninsular Thailand at about 914 m, and is probably a complex of several species. A 2025 study moved it from Maxomys into the genus Crunomys (Mammal Diversity Database).
A northern subspecies, tonkinensis, was named by Balakirev and colleagues in 2017. It occurs across northern Vietnam from Ha Tinh in the south to Ba Vi near Hanoi, and in central Laos. Its tail is long, usually 106 to 115% of the head and body length (Balakirev et al. 2017).
Quick answers
- Where is the Indomalayan Spiny Rat found?
- Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei
- How big is the Indomalayan Spiny Rat?
- Northern Vietnamese form: head and body 170-222 mm, tail 193-227 mm, weight 127-210 g