---
title: "Dassie Rat"
description: "Petromus typicus — Mamíferos. The dassie rat or noki (Petromus typicus) is a diurnal African rodent native to rocky outcrops in Namibia, parts of Angola, and northwestern South Africa."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/pt/animal/dassie-rat
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Dassie Rat

> Petromus typicus — Mamíferos. The dassie rat or noki (Petromus typicus) is a diurnal African rodent native to rocky outcrops in Namibia, parts of Angola, and northwestern South Africa.

- Scientific name: *Petromus typicus*
- Category: `mammals` (Mamíferos)
- Habitats: `desert` (Deserto)
- iNaturalist observations: 382
- Wikidata: [Q838740](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q838740)
- iNaturalist taxon: [45932](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/45932)

## Names

- en: Dassie Rat
- de: Felsenratte
- es: Rata roquera africana
- fr: Rat typique des rochers
- nl: Rotsrat
- pl: Skałoszczur właściwy

## Countries with the most observations

NA (284), ZA (78)

## Summary

The dassie rat or noki (Petromus typicus) is a diurnal African rodent native to rocky outcrops in Namibia, parts of Angola, and northwestern South Africa. It is the only living member of its genus, Petromus, and family, Petromuridae. Key features of the dassie rat include a flattened skull and flexible ribs, allowing it to squeeze into extremely narrow rock crevices. The name "dassie" means "hyrax" in Afrikaans, and the two animals are found in similar habitats. 
Petromus means "rock mouse" and dassie rats are one of many rodents sometimes called rock rats. The family and genus names are sometimes misspelled as Petromyidae…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassie_rat

## Photo

![Dassie Rat](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/dassie-rat/medium.jpg)

Photo: Nogga_Eugene · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140693261

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/dassie-rat?lang=pt` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).