Episode 484: The Sewellel and the Superflea
About this episode
This episode explores the sewellel, a unique rodent, and the superflea, a parasite that relies on it as a host.
The sewellel is a little rodent: The superflea is a big flea (left, compared to a regular flea, right): Show transcript: Welcome to Strange Animals Podcast. I’m your host, Kate Shaw. Let’s learn about a rodent you may never have heard of, unless you live where it does, and a parasite that makes that rodent its host. It’s not an ordinary parasite, but don’t worry, it’s not icky. You can continue to snack. The rodent is called the sewellel, Aplodontia rufa . It’s also called the mountain beaver even though it doesn’t always live in the mountains and it isn’t a beaver. It doesn’t even look like a beaver. For one thing, it only has a little nub of a tail and it only grows around 20 inches long, or 50 cm. It has small eyes and ears, short legs, a chunky body, and long claws. This body shape should give you a hint about its lifestyle: the sewellel is a digger, although it can also swim just fine and can even climb small trees to eat young twigs and leaves. The sewellel is an aplodont, a large group of rodents that have been common in Europe, Asia, and North America for 40 million years. But it’s the only one left. All the other aplodonts went extinct several million years ago at least…
More episodes of Strange Animals Podcast
- Episode 488: The Java Tiger Mystery
- Episode 487: Animals and the Sense of Taste
- Episode 486: Two Rediscovered Birds
- Episode 485: Cryodraken’s Very Bad Day
- Episode 482: Smoky Mountain Mystery Animals
- Episode 481: The Pictish Beast
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