Tres Marias deer mouse

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Tres Marias deer mouse
Systematics
Superfamily : Mice-like (Muroidea)
Family : Burrowers (Cricetidae)
Subfamily : Neotominae
Tribe : Reithrodontomyini
Genre : White footed mice ( Peromyscus )
Type : Tres Marias deer mouse
Scientific name
Peromyscus madrensis
Merriam , 1898

The Tres Marias deer mouse ( Peromyscus madrensis ) is a species of Peromyscus that on to Mexico belonging Marias Islands endemic is.

Appearance

Since the Tres-Marias deer mouse is the only species of its genus on the Marias Islands, it cannot be confused with other species there.

The fur is yellow-brown on the back and white on the belly. There is a dark band on the back of the back, which, however, only differs slightly from the basic color. There is often, but not always, a pink spot on the chest. The tail is two-colored in the front two-thirds: dark brown on the top, light brown on the underside; but this color difference is also indistinct. In the last third it is a solid dark brown.

The head-trunk length is 20 to 25 cm, the tail is 10 to 13 cm long.

distribution

The Tres Marias deer mouse lives on all four islands of the Marias Islands : María Madre , Isla María Magdalena , María Cleofas and San Juanito . On María Madre, the only inhabited one of the four islands, it was pushed into the deciduous forests in the hilly interior of the island by the common black rat . The species is abundant on María Cleofas, where rats are absent, and lives in all kinds of habitats, from the forests to the coast. The Tres Marias deer mouse was no longer seen on María Magdalena after the black rat was introduced. It is said to be very common on the small island of San Juanito.

The Tres-Marias deer mouse probably came to the islands in the Pleistocene . According to one theory, the islands were connected to the mainland and were only separated from Mexico by the melting of the polar ice caps after the last ice age. Another theory assumes that the mice reached the islands on flotsam.

Systematics

Peromyscus simulus and Peromyscus boylii are suspected to be the closest relatives of the Tres-Marias deer mouse . For a long time it was classified as a subspecies of boylii and only raised to species level in 1977.

There is no distinction between subspecies. However, it was found that the specimens on María Cleofas are on average larger than on María Madre.

Relationship to people

The Tres-Marias deer mouse used to be very common on all four islands. The introduction of rats has pushed the mice into inaccessible regions in many places. Deer and goats that were also introduced have changed the vegetation and may also be responsible for the decline in the population. The IUCN classifies the species as endangered.

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  • Sergio Ticul Álvarez-Castañeda, Lia Méndez: Peromyscus madrensis. In: Mammalian Species . No. 774, 2005, pp. 1-3.

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