Ilin cloud rat
Also known as: Ilin Island cloudrunner (current English name) · Crateromys paulus (scientific name)
Definition
The Ilin cloud rat or Ilin Island cloudrunner (Crateromys paulus) is a small, poorly known cloud rat endemic to tiny Ilin Island off southern Mindoro, Philippines. Known from only a very few scientific specimens, it is regarded as critically endangered and possibly extinct, lost to the island’s near-total deforestation and persistent hunting of its larger relatives. (Wikipedia)
Identities
| Source Type | Identity |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Ilin Island cloudrunner |
| Wikidata | Ilin Island cloudrunner (Q304226) |
| DBpedia | N/A |
| ProductOntology | N/A |
| Wiktionary | N/A |
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) | N/A |
| MeSH | N/A |
| NCBI Taxonomy | N/A |
| AGROVOC | N/A |
| Google Scholar | Crateromys paulus Ilin Island conservation status |
| ConceptNet | rodent |
| OpenCyc | N/A |
Also Known As
- Ilin Island cloudrunner (current English name)
- Crateromys paulus (scientific name)
Examples and Analogies
- The mouse that became an island: Isolated on a square-kilometer island, this species illustrates the “island within an island” effect — Mindoro’s fauna compressed further, then whittled by axe and snare.
- A ghost in the specimens drawer: Like the Christmas Island pipistrelle, it exists mostly as museum skins — a species science met too briefly, on the very edge of extinction.
Usage Scenarios
1. Conservation Priority-Setting
It appears on Philippine mammal action plans as a “possibly extinct” taxon requiring targeted rediscovery searches.
2. Museum-Based Research
Type specimens underpin morphological and genetic studies of cloud rat evolution and of Mindoro’s biogeographic history.
3. Flagship for Small-Island Habitats
Its plight is used to argue that tiny islands — often overlooked in reserve design — deserve surveys and protection.
4. Local Awareness Campaigns
Environmental education on Mindoro uses cloud rats to explain hunting impacts on slow-breeding forest animals.
Strategies
- Conduct camera-trap and local-interview surveys on Ilin and adjacent Mindoro coasts for any surviving population.
- Protect residual forest patches and karst outcrops on Ilin Island as the only plausible refuges.
- Determine, genetically, whether animals occasionally attributed to this species on Mindoro proper are distinct.
- Reduce hunting of all large rodents in the region through community agreements and alternative livelihoods.
Security and Safety Measures
- Field surveys in the area must coordinate with local officials and indigenous communities for access and safety.
- Any live animal found should be documented and left in place; collection requires permits and expert handling to avoid destroying a last population.
- Specimen storage in museums demands controlled conditions so degraded DNA remains usable for future research.
Historical Context
The species was described in 1953 from a single animal collected on Ilin Island, and extraordinarily few verified records have followed. Cloud rats — nocturnal, tree-dwelling rodents of the northern Philippines and Mindanao faunal regions — evolved into large, slow reproducers vulnerable to hunting; several species are among the archipelago’s most threatened mammals. Ilin Island was largely deforested in the twentieth century for shifting cultivation, removing the cloud runner’s habitat while snares and dogs removed the animals. Post-2000 mammal expeditions failed to confirm it, and the IUCN treats it as critically endangered (possibly extinct), making every unverified report a conservation priority. (Wikipedia)
Challenges and Controversies
Possibly Extinct Status
No clear photograph or specimen of a living animal exists in recent decades; hope rests on unverified sightings.
Habitat Already Gone
Ilin’s forests were converted decades ago, so even if survivors exist, recovery habitat must be restored rather than merely protected.
Taxonomic Uncertainty
Whether some Mindoro “cloud rat” reports involve this species or its relatives affects what exactly is being searched for.