The red viscacha rat burrows in dune belts around saline lakes and feeds on salt-tolerant plants. It has a yellow-brown back, white underside, and long, bicolored tail.
Its dorsal fur is yellow-brown, the underside is white, the ears are short, and the long tail is bicolored.
It is nocturnal and lives alone in a complex burrow with several entrances and food chambers. It eats salt-tolerant plants and uses bristle brushes behind the upper incisors to strip salt from leaf surfaces.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.