I was sitting in the garden this morning and saw a large rodent run and pause in front of me. I didn’t have a phone with me

but I will try and describe what I saw, maybe a nature expert can help. 
 

I live in a village about 20km outside Khon Kaen.

 

The animal 100% was not a rat, it had an elongated body, it also had a thicker and darker tail than a rat. From the glimpse I had, it had more of a vole or shrew like snout. It didn’t move like a rat. The legs were longer than a rat. 

 

The coat was the colour of a UK wild rabbit or a coypu, not a solid colour like you would see on a stoat or weasel, the body wasn’t long enough to be either of those and it didn’t move in the “slinky” way that a stoat or Weasel would. 
 

I had a brief Google, rodents of Thailand, came back with a possibility - a crab eating mongoose? I have never seen a mongoose other than on TV, but I would say it looks like the closest to what I saw this morning.

 

Does anyone have any ideas? (And it wasn’t a squirrel either) 

 

 

From the description, treeshrew or moonrat.

On 8/19/2024 at 9:20 AM, recom273 said:

 

 

Does anyone have any ideas? (And it wasn’t a squirrel either) 

 

 

Seems to me to be a thingmajig......sorry.

Just now, petermik said:

Seems to me to be a thingymajig......sorry.

 

I thought all the rats were in Pattaya or Patong?

Was it possibly a type of squirrel?

The description seems like a mongoose, but I don’t think there’s mongoose in TH.

18 minutes ago, Maybole said:

Was it possibly a type of squirrel?

Look what the OP wrote below:
 

On 8/19/2024 at 9:20 AM, recom273 said:

Does anyone have any ideas? (And it wasn’t a squirrel either) 

 

To OP, you probably saw the one on the photo below. Besides that you will see the spread in Thailand for the same.

Are you near water, maybe an otter, if not a mongoose...

otter

 

mongoose

 

some other options ...

@Foxx I think the tree shrew looks like a contender - probably not a moonrat.

 

@KhunLA Having seen otters before, when I looked up, it was the first thing I thought of, but there is something missing in the way it moved, otters have a similar way to ferrets, polecats, etc. in that they flex. 

@Gottfrid it could be, what is the picture of? 
 

It could also be a form of civet or mongoose, there is an Asian mongoose, but it looks rare.

 

Anyway, thanks for all the suggestions, they all look possible contenders, I guess we will never know. I find it really exciting to live here, there is always something, like a nice sized python crossing the road, a hoopee, which I love to see, or the white squirrels I see every day. 

 

1 minute ago, recom273 said:

a hoopee, which I love to see

 

Do you mean hoopoe? The colourful bird with the spectacular crest?

Maybe a wild occupant of Soi 6 in Pattaya. Could have got loose.

7 minutes ago, Foxx said:

 

Do you mean hoopoe? The colourful bird with the spectacular crest?

Yes, sorry autocorrect.

 

Yes, I often get pairs in the garden at times of the year. officially the rarest bird to be seen in the UK, I was told.