Well, they ARE...

Bandicoots are members of the class Mammalia, of the order Marsupialia. They are different from the Bandicoot Rat, who belongs to the order of Rodentia.

skeeter said:
Bandicoots are members of the class Mammalia, of the order Marsupialia. They are different from the Bandicoot Rat, who belongs to the order of Rodentia.

That's true, but how many bandicoot rat furries do you think there are out there? Most rats will probably be Rattus rattus, or Rattus norvegicus (black and brown rat, respectively). More importantly. in most cases, regarding a piece of art where the subject is 5-6 foot tall, a rat and a mouse are already very similar, from a visual standpoint. We don't differentiate from a black rat and a brown rat (even though both come in an array of colors).

In any regard, a bandicoot rat, from a taxonomic perspective, is as close to a rat as a rat is to a mouse. They're all part of the same family and sub family, but different genus (rattus, mus, and bandicota). I can't find a good picture, but, they look like big rats to me.

Bandicoot, on the other hand, are marsupials, as refer to members of the order Peramelemorphia, and cover about 20 different indivudual species.

Personally... considering that there's a videogame about a bandicoot, I'd rather all of the bandicoot images be tagged marsupial, then to allow that someone, somewhere, might want to draw a big rat. and event if they do decide they want to play a big rat, they'll probably play a pouched rat, a capybara, or a woolly rat of some sort. Or a 'giant honking sewer rat'. Not a bandicoot rat.

and you know what? if someone does? and it's visually distinct enough to be tagged 'Bandicoot rat' rather then just 'rat'... we can tag it bandicoot_(rat)