Species composition of rodents in rural and commercial food grain storages in Assam

An investigation was carried out during 2007–08 to find out the rodent species composition in rural and commercial food grain storages in Jorhat, Assam. All together five species associated with stored rice grain were identified belonging to the family Muridae. They were Rattus rattus (Linnaeus), Rattus sikkimensis Hinton, Rattus norvegicus (Berkenhout), Bandicota bengalensis bengalensis (Gray) and Mus musculus castaneus Waterhouse. Of them R. rattus was predominant both in rural (40.95%) and commercial (32.29%) grain storage followed by Bandicota bengalensis bengalensis which was recorded 25.06% and 29.80% in rural and commercial godowns, respectively. The species composition in rural grain storages were R. rattus (40.95%), R. sikkimensis (9.05%), B. bengalensis bengalensis (25.06%) and M. musculus castaneus (24.94%) while in commercial godowns were R. rattus (32.29%), R. sikkimensis (4.84%), R. norvegicus (12.82%), B. bengalensis bengalensis (29.80%) and M. musculus castaneus (21.26%). R. norvegicus was recorded only in urban commercial grain storage.