The Malagasy giant rat lives in a restricted area on Madagascar's western coast. Family groups use underground burrows, are mainly active at night, and are thought to feed mostly on fallen fruit.
It has large ears and long hind feet. The back may be gray or reddish-brown, the head is darker, the feet and underside are pale, and the dark tail has short, stiff hairs.
In Kirindy Forest, western Madagascar, fieldwork from October 1992 to June 1995 caught 115 distinct rats at 28 burrows. Recaptures showed pairs or families sharing burrows. Radio-tracked adults from neighboring burrows used largely separate ranges, while pair-mates’ ranges overlapped widely each night. For the two males and two females tracked throughout the seasonal comparison, ranges were larger in dry-season October than in rainy-season November–December.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.