Egyptian spiny mouse
| Egyptian spiny mouse | ||||||||||||
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Egyptian spiny mouse ( Acomys cahirinus cahirinus ), melanistic form. |
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| Acomys cahirinus | ||||||||||||
| ( Geoffroy , 1803) |
The Egyptian spiny mouse ( Acomys cahirinus ) is a mammal from the long-tailed mouse family . The species inhabits large parts of northern Africa in three isolated (disjoint) subareas. It is considered safe.
Mark
Like all species of the genus Acomys, the Egyptian spiny mouse is significantly larger and heavier than the house mouse . Like all spiny mice, it has noticeably large ears and eyes, a pointed snout, a body-length, scaled tail and a back fur made of stiff, spiky hair. The head-trunk length is 75-138 mm, the tail length 85-138 mm, the length of the hind feet 18-23 mm and the ear length 18-31 mm. The animals weigh 21-64 g. The fur is usually light reddish brown on the top. The underside is sharply set off white, the base of the ears, a narrow area under the eyes and the top of the feet are hairy white.
Melanistic animals occur frequently , at least in Egypt , but apparently almost exclusively in populations that live as commensals of humans in houses or their immediate surroundings.
distribution and habitat
The species inhabits large parts of northern Africa in three isolated (disjoint) subareas. The western sub-area comprises the south-east of Morocco , the extreme west of Algeria , the northern and central western Sahara and the north-western part of Mauritania . The middle sub-area comprises an area in southeast Algeria. The eastern and largest sub-area includes almost all of Libya , Egypt except for the eastern part of the Sinai Peninsula and the north of Sudan and then extends over Eritrea , Djibouti and northern Ethiopia to northern Somalia . The southern limit of distribution in Sudan and Ethiopia is not yet known exactly.
The species is mainly bound to arid , rocky areas and inhabits rocky slopes, rock walls and wadis from sea level to 1800 m, in the Sahel zone also sparsely covered with low bushes gravel plains. Especially in Egypt, however, many populations also live commensally in buildings and in their surroundings in gardens, date groves and in old grave and temple complexes.
Way of life
Egyptian spiny mice are active during the day and especially in the morning and evening. You climb very well. The buildings are laid out in crevices or in simple corridors in the ground. The animals are omnivores and feed on leaves, seeds and fruits, but also on snails, insects and scorpions .
Researchers reported in 2016 that they discovered that Egyptian spiny mice were menstruating . They would therefore one of the few animal species in which menstruation has been found so far only in some primates - and bat species and the family of shrews .
Existence and endangerment
The Egyptian spiny mouse is widespread, very adaptable and abundant locally; there is no evidence of population decline. The IUCN therefore classifies the species as 
(= least concern - not endangered).
swell
literature
- Stéphane Aulagnier, Patrick Haffner, Anthony J. Mitchell-Jones, François Moutou, Jan Zima: The mammals of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The destination guide. Haupt, Bern et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-258-07506-8 , pp. 240–241.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Acomys (Acomys) cahirinus. In: Don E. Wilson , DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A taxonomic and geographic Reference. 2 volumes. 3. Edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 , online ( June 7, 2010 memento on the Internet Archive ).
- ↑ The Egyptian spiny mouse on the IUCN Red List
- ↑ Biology: Female mice also have their days. In: Spektrum.de. October 10, 2019, accessed October 10, 2019 .
Web links
- Acomys cahirinus in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2009. Posted by: Dieterlen, F., Schlitter, D. & Amori, G., 2008. Accessed on December 20 of 2009.