Did you know porcupines also came in pocket size? Born with soft fur, the Armored Rat grows spines on its back and sides after the first month. Found in wet lowland rainforests of Latin America, from northern Honduras to northwest Ecuador, it feeds on fruit, insects and green plant matter. It is part of a family of similar neo tropical spiny rats more closely related to porcupines, Guinea pigs, chinchillas, and degus, than to rats. This family is comprised of specialists of a wide range of ecological habitats that includes terrestrial, fossorial and semi aquatic.
