Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Rodents/Archive 2

Comment on the WikiProject X proposal
Hello there! As you may already know, most WikiProjects here on Wikipedia struggle to stay active after they've been founded. I believe there is a lot of potential for WikiProjects to facilitate collaboration across subject areas, so I have submitted a grant proposal with the Wikimedia Foundation for the "WikiProject X" project. WikiProject X will study what makes WikiProjects succeed in retaining editors and then design a prototype WikiProject system that will recruit contributors to WikiProjects and help them run effectively. Please review the proposal here and leave feedback. If you have any questions, you can ask on the proposal page or leave a message on my talk page. Thank you for your time! (Also, sorry about the posting mistake earlier. If someone already moved my message to the talk page, feel free to remove this posting.) Harej (talk) 22:48, 1 October 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject X is live!


Hello everyone!

You may have received a message from me earlier asking you to comment on my WikiProject X proposal. The good news is that WikiProject X is now live! In our first phase, we are focusing on research. At this time, we are looking for people to share their experiences with WikiProjects: good, bad, or neutral. We are also looking for WikiProjects that may be interested in trying out new tools and layouts that will make participating easier and projects easier to maintain. If you or your WikiProject are interested, check us out! Note that this is an opt-in program; no WikiProject will be required to change anything against its wishes. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!

Note: To receive additional notifications about WikiProject X on this talk page, please add this page to WikiProject X/Newsletter. Otherwise, this will be the last notification sent about WikiProject X.

Harej (talk) 16:56, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

Ratzilla
Hi, what species of rat is Ratzilla ? IQ125 (talk) 14:36, 29 March 2014 (UTC)

tail length of paca's
length of tail for paca's seems far to large: 13–23 cm (5.1–9.1 in) mentioned on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paca. Should be ~1.5-3.5 cm. e.g. book Animal: The Definitive Visual Guide by David Burnie (2001) as well as various websites.

81.11.172.244 (talk) 18:54, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Animal breed disambiguation
Wikipedia talk:Article titles may be of interest to editors here. — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  23:14, 16 July 2014 (UTC)

Rattus Mollicomulus - little soft-furred rat
This article, correctly I believe, states that this rat lives only in Indonesia (Sulawesi) but in the second paragraph gives range details from Pakistan and India. Clean up needed I think.

Green daemon (talk) 17:23, 29 October 2014 (UTC)green daemon
 * I made a note at Talk:Little soft-furred rat.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  19:55, 29 October 2014 (UTC)

Taxonomy issues, need an expert
On the Smooth-toothed pocket gopher page, Thomomys bulbivorus is assigned to the subgenus Thomomys. However, I am finding resources placing it in the subgenus Megascapheus. Megascaphues is currently a redirect page. At least one reference suggests that the subgenus Megascapheus was initially constructed for the species T. bulbivorus alone. I am going to be taking the T. bulbivorus page to GA status and would appreciate some help clarifying. &mdash; Gaff ταλκ 01:44, 13 November 2014 (UTC)
 * On further review, Template:Geomyidae_nav is also wrong in the assignments of the gophers to subgenus ranks. It is not concordant with ITIS and other refs.  &mdash; Gaff  ταλκ 05:45, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Expert attention
This is a notice about Category:Rodent articles needing expert attention, which might be of interest to your WikiProject. Iceblock (talk) 17:53, 11 December 2014 (UTC)

Schmidly v Schmidly
The IUCN lists two species with the common name Schmidly's deer mouse:
 * Habromys schmidlyi, which is listed as critically endangered since 2008.
 * Peromyscus schmidlyi, which is "least concern", a recently described species, split from Peromyscus boylii (the brush mouse) in 2004. Also assessed in 2008.

It seems like too much of a coincidence that two species both happened to be called Schmidly's Deer Mouse, but it seems odd the same species would have two listings with opposite assessments. Anyone want to shed some light on this, or edit/create the relevant articles? Habromys schmidlyi currently has no article associated (I created a redirect for it before noticing that they might be different species, and so deleted it) —Pengo 04:54, 9 February 2015 (UTC)


 * They seem to be different species. H. schmidlyi occurs on the Guerrero/Mexico state border. P. schmidlyi occurs in Durango, Sinaloa and Sonora. The "common" name is a coincidence. Habromys and Peromyscus both have deer mouse as a common name, and schmidlyi can be translated as Schmidly's. "Schmidly's deer mouse" isn't a real common name (in the sense of WP:COMMONNAME), just a translation of the scientific name invented to fill the common name field in IUCN's database. Obscure species that were only recognized by scientists in the last decade and which are endemic to countries where English isn't widely spoken don't have true common names in English. Plantdrew (talk) 17:50, 9 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Ok, thanks for looking into that. I've added a hatnote to Peromyscus schmidlyi and created a disambiguation page at Schmidly's deer mouse. —Pengo 06:50, 11 February 2015 (UTC)

Pageview stats
After a recent request, I added WikiProject Rodents to the list of projects to compile monthly pageview stats for. The data is the same used by http://stats.grok.se/en/ but the program is different, and includes the aggregate views from all redirects to each page. The stats are at WikiProject Rodents/Popular pages.

The page will be updated monthly with new data. The edits aren't marked as bot edits, so they will show up in watchlists. You can view more results, request a new project be added to the list, or request a configuration change for this project using the Tool Labs tool. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks! Mr.Z-man 04:38, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

hystricimorph unreadable
Hi! The article on hystricomorph is too technical and impossible for a lay person to comprehend - even a knowledgeable lay person! Wikipedia is not meant to be written like a technical abstract (at least, that's my impression). The hystricomorph article needs to be completely rewritten in common English with the scientific terminology kept to a minimum. It's fine to include scientific words, but this article is way beyond the ability of an ordinary educated person who is not a biologist to read. If this were a person's first visit to Wikipedia, he or she would probably be very discouraged and never come back.

So... please write in common everyday English for everybody to understand and if you want to include some scientific jargon, then put plenty of ordinary English in between so it doesn't come across as cryptic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.106.15.118 (talk) 21:55, 1 May 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Notability (breeds)
Please see Notability (breeds) for a draft of a future proposal for a notability guideline on domestic animal breeds. As your wiki-project is involved in this area, I am dropping off an invite to the discussion. Please visit Wikipedia talk:Notability (breeds). Thanks!  JT dale Talk ~ 16:20, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Today's featured article/May 22, 2015
Rodent will be on the Main Page soon. The article gives "mice, rats, squirrels, prairie dogs, porcupines, beavers, guinea pigs, and hamsters" as examples of rodents, but also says "most rodents weigh less than 100 g (3.5 oz)". How many of those rodent species typically weigh less than 100 g as adults? Should we be saying "most" and then giving a list that's mostly not? - Dank (push to talk) 15:39, 17 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Changing "most" to "many" would work for me, or upping the weight limit a little. - Dank (push to talk) 02:26, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Animal trapping listed at Requested moves
A requested move discussion has been initiated for Animal trapping to be moved to Trapping. This page is of interest to this WikiProject and interested members may want to participate in the discussion here. —RMCD bot 11:45, 11 June 2015 (UTC)
 * To opt out of RM notifications on this page, transclude, or set up Article alerts for this WikiProject.

Woodland Oldfield mouse
Should this article title be Woodland oldfield mouse? Colonies Chris (talk) 18:28, 22 September 2015 (UTC)


 * It doesn't seem like "oldfield" should be capitalized, but it's not clear that it should be at that title at all. There's a suggestion on the WikiProject Rodents page to use scientific names in cases like this. WikiProject Mammals prefers the "common" names put forward by Mammal Species of the World; which is woodland thomasomys for this species. Capitalized "Oldfield" is at least consistent with the titles of other articles listed in Category:Thomasomyini Plantdrew (talk) 23:51, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

house mouse
what are some habits — Preceding unsigned comment added by 165.138.41.100 (talk) 22:02, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

I am not really experienced in Wikipedia, but I noted that the "vole per acre" and "vole per hectare" number on the meadow vole page are wrong. (It cannot be 600/ha AND 1482 per acre as an acre is 0nly 40% of a hectare.

Just wanted to mention it somewhere, thanks. DCI Pascoe (talk) 21:09, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Watchlist link
The watchlist link appears to be broken. If you click on it, it takes you to a "page not found" error on an external server. 8bitW (talk) 19:16, 2 February 2016 (UTC)

New article - Animal testing on Syrian hamsters
I just made this new article. I thought I would share. Also, last month I made Domestication of the Syrian hamster. More hamster articles are coming too!  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  13:42, 18 April 2016 (UTC)
 * Animal testing on Syrian hamsters

2016 Community Wishlist Survey Proposal to Revive Popular Pages
Greetings Members!

This is a one-time-only message to inform you about a technical proposal to revive your Popular Pages list in the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey that I think you may be interested in reviewing and perhaps even voting for:


 * Fix and improve Mr.Z-bot's popular pages report

If the above proposal gets in the Top 10 based on the votes, there is a high likelihood of this bot being restored so your project will again see monthly updates of popular pages.

Further, there are over 260 proposals in all to review and vote for, across many aspects of wikis.

Thank you for your consideration. Please note that voting for proposals continues through December 12, 2016.

Best regards, — Delivered: 18:07, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Popular pages report
We – Community Tech – are happy to announce that the Popular pages bot is back up-and-running (after a one year hiatus)! You're receiving this message because your WikiProject or task force is signed up to receive the popular pages report. Every month, will post at /Popular pages with a list of the most-viewed pages over the previous month that are within the scope of. We've made some enhancements to the original report. Here's what's new:
 * The pageview data includes both desktop and mobile data.
 * The report will include a link to the pageviews tool for each article, to dig deeper into any surprises or anomalies.
 * The report will include the total pageviews for the entire project (including redirects).

We're grateful to for his original, and we wish his bot a happy robot retirement. Just as before, we hope the popular pages reports will aid you in understanding the reach of, and what articles may be deserving of more attention. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us at m:User talk:Community Tech bot.

Warm regards, the Community Tech Team 17:16, 17 May 2017 (UTC)

Passing of DrChrissy
User:DrChrissy was not a participant in this WikiProject but he was major contributor to many Wikipedia articles in this field, including laboratory mouse and rodent. I expect that many people here must have communicated with him at some time. He passed away just recently.

I think that many people in this project also contribute to animal welfare articles, and if you check his most edited articles, you can see that this was a priority for him. If anyone here wishes to communicate condolences from peers who promote respect for animals including rodents then post to his talk page.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  14:38, 29 August 2017 (UTC)

Request for good article review - Domestication of the Syrian hamster
Please see Domestication of the Syrian hamster.

Please review the article at Talk:Domestication of the Syrian hamster/GA1. I have been working on this article for some years. I have not researched every thread to its end, but I have gone far enough to feel that I should seek a review and feedback. I would be grateful for whatever comments anyone would share about the article.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  15:53, 26 December 2017 (UTC)

Request for comment on recommending usage of automatic taxoboxes
There is an RfC regarding recommending usage of automatic taxoboxes at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of Life. Inviting anybody who watches this page to contribute their thoughts to that thread.

WikiProject Rodents is currently using automatic taxoboxes in 60.9% of project tagged articles that have any form of taxobox. Plantdrew (talk) 01:38, 16 July 2018 (UTC)

"good faith" list article created on rodents
List_of_largest_rodents was created by an editor who has experienced some difficulties with correct sourcing and imaging of articles. Please check it for accuracy and policy conformity. Edaham (talk) 04:19, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

Capitalization of names of standardized breeds
Please see Village pump (policy).

This is a neutral RfC on a question left unanswered by MOS:LIFE (on purpose in 2012–2014, pending "later discussion"). It is now later, and lack of resolution of the question has held up MOS:ORGANISMS in draft proposal state for 6 years. — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  22:04, 9 December 2018 (UTC)

A new newsletter directory is out!
A new Newsletter directory has been created to replace the old, out-of-date one. If your WikiProject and its taskforces have newsletters (even inactive ones), or if you know of a missing newsletter (including from sister projects like WikiSpecies), please include it in the directory! The template can be a bit tricky, so if you need help, just post the newsletter on the template's talk page and someone will add it for you.
 * – Sent on behalf of Headbomb. 03:11, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

Subscribe to new Tree of Life Newsletter!
Despite the many Wikipedians who edit content related to organisms/species, there hasn't been a Tree of Life Newsletter...until now! If you would like regular deliveries of said newsletter, please add your name to the subscribers list. Thanks, Enwebb (talk) 00:30, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

Request for information on WP1.0 web tool
Hello and greetings from the maintainers of the WP 1.0 Bot! As you may or may not know, we are currently involved in an overhaul of the bot, in order to make it more modern and maintainable. As part of this process, we will be rewriting the web tool that is part of the project. You might have noticed this tool if you click through the links on the project assessment summary tables.

We'd like to collect information on how the current tool is used by....you! How do you yourself and the other maintainers of your project use the web tool? Which of its features do you need? How frequently do you use these features? And what features is the tool missing that would be useful to you? We have collected all of these questions at this Google form where you can leave your response. Walkerma (talk) 04:24, 27 October 2019 (UTC)

First annual Tree of Life Decemberween contest
After all the fun with the Spooky Species Contest last month, there's a new contest for the (Northern hemisphere's) Winter holidays at WikiProject Tree of Life/Contest. It's not just Christmas, but anything festive from December-ish. Feel free to add some ideas to the Festive taxa list and enter early and often. --Nessie (talk) 18:49, 12 November 2019 (UTC)

Verify
See Talk:Tibetan dwarf hamster. -- NGC 54  ( talk |  contribs ) 12:11, 7 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I tried responding. This is difficult for me.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  16:53, 9 March 2021 (UTC)

Guinea pig Featured article review
I have nominated Guinea pig for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Sandy Georgia (Talk)  16:02, 13 March 2021 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Euxerus erythropus
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Euxerus erythropus that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. — Shibboleth ink  (♔ ♕) 11:38, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

User script to detect unreliable sources
I have (with the help of others) made a small user script to detect and highlight various links to unreliable sources and predatory journals. Some of you may already be familiar with it, given it is currently the 39th most imported script on Wikipedia. The idea is that it takes something like and turns it into something like
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.
 * John Smith "Article of things" Deprecated.com. Accessed 2020-02-14.

It will work on a variety of links, including those from cite web, cite journal and doi.

The script is mostly based on WP:RSPSOURCES, WP:NPPSG and WP:CITEWATCH and a good dose of common sense. I'm always expanding coverage and tweaking the script's logic, so general feedback and suggestions to expand coverage to other unreliable sources are always welcomed.

Do note that this is not a script to be mindlessly used, and several caveats apply. Details and instructions are available at User:Headbomb/unreliable. Questions, comments and requests can be made at User talk:Headbomb/unreliable.

- &#32; Headbomb {t · c · p · b}

This is a one time notice and can't be unsubscribed from. Delivered by: MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:02, 29 April 2022 (UTC)

I am breeding Rattus rattus for domestication. Can I mention this on Wikipedia?
To my knowledge, I am the only one that is currently selectively breeding Black rats (known in the USA as Roof Rats) for domestication. Several people now keep rats that I have breed as pets, and I have recruited another breeder to breed rats from my line. I have no financial interest in this, as I do not charge for pets or breeding pairs to good homes. This is my website.

Rattus norvegicus is the only true rat species widely known to have been domesticated. Until now, behavioral comparisons between this species and Rattus rattus have been difficult, due to the lack of genetically tame R. Rattus. However, I now have very tame individuals, such as this young female, whose behavior differences are primarily due to having specialized in arboreal versus fossorial habitats.

I would like to add some information about this. Not to self promote, but to raise awareness of the species and its potential as house pets rather than strictly as wild pests. Again, my time and resources has been entirely donated, as I do not charge any money for these animals and have no intention to do so in the future. Brianjstarr (talk) 20:46, 11 August 2022 (UTC)

Musseromys
This genus of rodents of the Family Muridae which contains 4 species, is done (as to having no species with red links anymore). Only 1 page was done before today. I created the pages for the 3 others. Cheers to the small victories :) Gimly24 (talk) 01:55, 9 February 2023 (UTC)

Template and Genuses (Muridae)
I reviewed those and made a lot of changes to correct stuff. I didn't do formatting changes however.

Serengetimys, Congomys, Ochromyscus and Montemys should be added. See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Mammals Gimly24 (talk) 02:24, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

Added Punta de Vacas Leaf-eared Mouse
I made an article for Punta de Vacas Leaf-eared Mouse and corresponding wikidata entry at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q109317210. Hopefully I have cited the various sources for this being a separate species (Mammal Diversity Database and some primary literature, as well as NCBI taxonomy) but please fix it up if you find any problems. This species was the subject of the podcast https://www.microbe.tv/twievo/twievo-90/ ("This week in Evolution episode 90: The mystery of the mouse mummies"). Kingdon (talk) 17:16, 20 May 2023 (UTC)