habitat_narrative
Terrestrial
This is an arboreal species associated with established woodlands, particularly Acacia bushland. It prefers woodland trees, and does not inhabit shrublands or ecotones. Although T. nigricauda may be confined to arid savannahs, aside from some degree of distributional overlap, T. paedulcus generally inhabits broad-leaved and Acacia savannahs with an average annual precipitation of approximately 500 mm (Lovegrove 1997). They nest in cavities in the stems of large trees (Dean et al. 1999). In East Africa, they are mainly associated with Acacia xanthophloa and A. tortilis (Perrin 2013).This species is a dietary specialist with a complex gastric anatomy containing microbial symbionts, which may negatively affect the colonisation of new woodland sites, particularly those having a different species composition (Perrin 1986). In most respects the behaviour, feeding ecology and reproductive biology of the Tree Rat is similar to that of its sibling species, the Black-tailed Tree Rat. They are both nocturnal and forage mainly in the canopies of Acacia trees (Perrin 2013), but small families of Tree Rats are thought to be less selective in their choice of nesting tree, and may nest in any tree offering a suitable fork or hollow (Lovegrove 1997). Additional research is required to reliably validate disparities in the ecology and morphological characteristics of these sister species (Skinner & Chimimba 2005).
Ecosystem and cultural services: No specific ecosystem or cultural services have been identified for this species, however, it is expected that, similar to other arboreal Thallomys species, this species may represent a valuable prey species for opportunistic predators such as tree roosting owls (e.g. the Spotted Eagle Owl, Bubo africanus; Reed 2005), small carnivores and snakes
