Australian jumping mouse

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Australian jumping mouse
Kangaroo Mouse.jpg

Australian bouncy mouse ( Notomys alexis )

Systematics
Family : Long-tailed mice (Muridae)
Subfamily : Old World Mice (Murinae)
Tribe : Hydromyini
Pseudomys group
Genre : Australian jumping mice ( Notomys )
Type : Australian jumping mouse
Scientific name
Notomys alexis
Thomas , 1922

The Australian bouncy mouse ( Notomys alexis ) occurs in the arid and semi-arid regions of Central and Western Australia and has the largest range of all species in the genus of the Australian bouncy mouse . It is called tarrkawarra by the Aborigines .

features

The fur of the entire upper body of Notomys alexis is light brown, but from the back downwards it becomes increasingly chestnut colored to slightly grayish and white. The Australian jumping mice grow relatively large. Their long tail is colored brown on the top, the brown is much lighter on the underside. They have a brush at the tip of their tail, but this is significantly smaller than that of the related species. The males and females both have a throat pouch that varies in appearance when sexually aroused. The adult animals can weigh 20 to 50 grams. The head-torso length of the Australian jumping mouse is between 91 and 177 mm. Their tail is on average 125 to 225 mm long.

distribution and habitat

The Australian bouncy mouse is endemic to Australia, where it is found in the arid and semi-arid regions of central and western Australia . It populates parts of Western Australia , Northern Territory , South Australia and a western area in Queensland . This makes it the largest range of all Australian jumping mouse species . You can find them in regions shaped by Spinifex as well as on sandy plains and in dune landscapes . The Spinifex also coined its English name Spinifex Hopping Mouse (= Spinifex jumping mouse). The largest populations are found in the Great Victoria Desert , in Western Australia. They are also found less frequently in eucalyptus forests , in acacia bush , on grassland and in areas covered with tufts of grass.

Way of life

The Australian bouncy mouse is a seed disperser for many different plants. It is the only seed disperser in the arid regions of Australia, along with ten to twelve other small mammal species. Thus, the Australian jumping mouse is a very important component of the entire vegetation there .

behavior

The Australian bouncy mouse is a nocturnal species that only lives on the ground. All day long she sleeps in deep caves under the sand. Their predators are dingoes , owls , larger snakes and the introduced house cats . The Australian bouncy mouse is very social and lives in groups of up to ten animals. These groups live in deep burrows, which are connected to those of the other groups by many corridors. Within the group, the animals have the strongest ties to the representatives of their own family. If the groups reach too large numbers of individuals, some animals leave them and form their own group or join a smaller one. In captivity, large groups can cause the animals to kill their own offspring, as the adult animals cannot withdraw from the group due to a lack of space.

The species of the genus Australian bouncy mice have two different methods of locomotion : they can hop on all four legs or just on their hind legs. This specialization can only be found in two of the seven species in the genus. Because the animals live in arid regions, they have limited their water loss in many ways. Urinating and defecating are limited to the bare minimum. They also spend the hot hours of the day in the pleasantly cool buildings. The temperature in the caves remains constant both during the day and at night.

nutrition

After dark, the animals leave their den to look for seeds , green plants and occasionally to hunt insects under cover of darkness . One study has shown that they feed about 50% on seeds and 50% on invertebrates . They also supplement their diet with green plants. The study has shown that the Australian jumping mouse is omnivorous . It gets its vital water only from food. The little water is just enough for the body to survive.

Reproduction

The females mate with several males during the mating season . That is why the males do not get into tussles as often, because they know that everyone will get a turn. In captivity, Hyde and Elgar observed in 1992 that a female had sexual intercourse with several males at the same time . With the resulting pups, Hyde and Elgar made a paternity test , which revealed that all pups were descended from a male. Notomys alexis is an opportunistic breeder. On reproduktivsten the species is during periods of heavy rain as it then finds food in abundance. But she can have cubs all year round. The females are ready to conceive for seven to eight days around 85 days after giving birth . After copulation, the gestation period extends to 32 to 34 days. A litter consists on average of three to four young animals. The young are covered with hairs after birth, but their pink skin is clearly visible. The young animals, which weigh around three grams, take around 15 days to open their ears. The eyes only open after around 20 days. They are suckled by their mother until they are weaned after around 28 days. In captivity, their life expectancy is around three years, whereas in the wild they only live to be around one year old.

status

The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies the species as "not endangered". Due to its wide range and occurrence in large protected areas that are safe from predators, it is estimated that there are still enough specimens to preserve the species. The effects of climate change and the backfilling of the dwellings due to the constantly growing livestock is still unclear. The impact of imported predators on populations has not yet been researched either. Fewer specimens live in areas with a high density of feral domestic cats than in intact areas.

Importance to humans

The Australian bouncy mouse is sometimes kept as a pet . In Australia it is used as a laboratory animal . In 1975 the species exploded and became a plague. There were hundreds of sightings that year, mostly on roads where the animals had been run over by cars. It was also reported that they ate people's leftovers at the campsites .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Breed, WG, and J. Taylor. 2000. Body mass, testes mass and sperm size in murine rodents. Journal of Mammalogy 81: 758-768.
  2. ↑ Murray, B., C. Dickman. 1994. Granivory and Microhabitat Use in Australian Desert Rodents: Are Seeds Important ?. Oecologia, 99: 216-225.
  3. ^ Webb, PI, and JD Skinner. 1996. Physiological adaptation to aridity in the bushveld gerbil, Tatera leucogaster. Journal of Zoology 238: 693-701.
  4. ↑ Smith, JR, Watts CHS, and CEG 1972. Reproduction in the Australian desert rodents Notomys alexis and Pseudomys australis (Muridae). Australian Mammalogy 1: 1-7.
  5. ^ Fox, BJ 1985. A Graphical-Method for Estimating Length of Gestation and Estrous-Cycle Length from Birth Intervals in Rodents. Journal of Mammalogy 66: 168-173.
  6. ^ Breed, WG 1983. Sexual Dimorphism in the Australian Hopping Mouse, Notomys alexis. Journal of Mammalogy 64: 536-539.
  7. ↑ Lamoreux, J. (Global Mammal Assessment Team) & Amori, G. (Small Nonvolant Mammal Red List Authority)

literature

  • Breed, WG 2008. Spinifex Hopping-mouse, Notomys alexis. In: S. Van Dyck and R. Strahan (eds), The mammals of Australia. Third Edition, pp. 596-597. Reed New Holland, Sydney, Australia. ISBN 978-1-877069-25-3 .
  • Hyde, L., M. Elgar. 1992. Why do Hopping Mice Have Such Tiny Testes ?. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 7 (11): 359-396.
  • Murray, B., C. Dickman. 1994. Granivory and Microhabitat Use in Australian Desert Rodents: Are Seeds Important ?. Oecologia, 99: 216-225.
  • Verberne, P. 2002. "Notomys alexis" (On-line). Accessed April 25, 2002
  • Watts, C., H. Aslin. 1981. The Rodents of Australia. Sydney: Angus & Robertson Publishers.

Web links

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