Bocage's African Fat Mouse

Open encyclopedia reference

Bocage's African fat mouse (Steatomys bocagei) is an extant species of rodent indigenous to Angola, the Republic of the Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Given the distribution of the species across the Angolan Plateau and south-west of the DRC throughout central Africa, the probability of a 'large population', and the security of its habitat, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognises S. bocagei as stable. Whereas taxonomies early in the twentieth century posit S. bocagei as a species, more contemporary records from 1977 onwards identify it as indistinguishable from S. pratensis. In 1998, however, Crawford-Cabral proposed that the additional pair of teats in S. bocagei required separation from S. pratensis. Subsequent to Crawford-Cabral's publication, Wilson and Reader maintain in Mammal Species of the World that the size of these species also requires differentiation, where S. bocagei is significantly larger than S. pratensis and is unique or otherwise corresponds to S. opimus.

Wikipedia contributors, Bocage's African fat mouse; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:42:57.446198+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Steatomys bocagei Thomas, 1892

Name authority

Thomas, 1892

Common name

Bocage's African Fat Mouse

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Rodentia

Family

Nesomyidae

Genus

Steatomys

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderRodentia Bowdich, 1821
12. suborderMyomorpha Brandt, 1855
13. superfamilyMuroidea Illiger, 1811
14. familyNesomyidae Forsyth Major, 1897
15. subfamilyDendromurinae G. M. Allen, 1939
16. genusSteatomys Peters, 1846
17. speciesSteatomys bocagei Thomas, 1892

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Steatomys. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 48 records assigned to Nesomyidae.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=970575 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4ZMSY. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.