Proechimys semispinosus
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Tome's spiny rat (Proechimys semispinosus), also known as Tomes' spiny rat or the Central American spiny rat, is a species of spiny rat distributed from Honduras to Ecuador. The IUCN has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Tome's spiny rat is a large rat with a head-and-body length of between 220 and 280 mm (8.7 and 11.0 in) and a tail length of between 175 and 192 mm (6.9 and 7.6 in). The head is long and slender, with prominent eyes and narrow erect ears. At night, the eyes reflect a reddish eyeshine. The feet are long with strong nails. The pelage is sleek with spines mixed in with the dorsal fur, though these are not very obvious in the field. The upper parts are reddish-brown while the underparts are white. The tail is almost hairless and is reddish-brown above and white below. About 20% of animals encountered have no tail. This rat could be confused with the armored rat (Hoplomys gymnurus) which is much the same size, but the armored rat has a longer snout and smaller eyes, which are less reflective at night. Other terrestrial rats are considerably smaller and mostly have tails that are longer than their head-and-body lengths.
Its... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tome's Spiny Rat sighting in Soberanía National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 36 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June, September and December–April
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tome's Spiny Rat in Soberanía National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, July–August and October–November, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tome's Spiny Rat sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Soberanía National Park, in our data
Soberanía National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Tome's Spiny Rat sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tome's Spiny Rat is recorded against all the mammals logged in Soberanía National Park (10 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
