The moonrat is a fairly small, primarily carnivorous animal which, despite its name, is not closely related to rats or other rodents.

[1] The moonrat has a distinct pungent odor with strong ammonia content, different from the musky smell of carnivorans.

Those from western Borneo tend to have a greater proportion of black hairs than those from the east, but animals from Brunei appear intermediate.

[7] Moonrats are nocturnal and terrestrial, lying up under logs, roots or in abandoned burrows during the day.

The main threat to the moonrat is deforestation activities due to human development for agriculture, plantation, and commercial logging.