The Asian garden dormouse or large-eared garden dormouse, (''Eliomys melanurus'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...

in the family Gliridae. It is found in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are temperate

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s, subtropical or tropical dry

shrubland Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity. It m ...

, Mediterranean-type shrubby vegetation, rocky areas and

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...

s. It is active throughout the year but can enter a state of torpor. Diet consists mainly of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

snail A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...

centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

s and

gecko Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates throughout the world. They range from . Geckos ar ...

s but as an

omnivore An omnivore () is an animal that has the ability to eat and survive on both plant and animal matter. Obtaining energy and nutrients from plant and animal matter, omnivores digest carbohydrates, protein, fat, and fiber, and metabolize the nutr ...

, it will also eat plant matter.Aulagnier S.; P. Haffner, A. J. Mitchell-Jones, F. Moutou & J. Zima (2009) ''Mammals of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East'', A&C Black, London. It is a common species and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

Taxonomy

This species was first described in 1840 by the German zoologist

Johann Andreas Wagner Johann Andreas Wagner (21 March 1797 – 17 December 1861) was a German palaeontologist, zoologist and archaeologist who wrote several important works on palaeontology. Career Wagner was a professor at the University of Munich, and curator ...

who placed it in the genus '' Myoxus''. It was later transferred to ''

Eliomys ''Eliomys'' ( grc-gre, Ἡλίομυς ''Hēlíomus'') is a genus of rodent in the family Gliridae. It contains the following extant species: * Asian garden dormouse, ''Eliomys melanurus'' * Maghreb garden dormouse, ''Eliomys munbyanus'' * Gard ...

''. Originally thought to extend as far west as Morocco, it was considered to be a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''

Eliomys quercinus The garden dormouse (''Eliomys quercinus'') is a rodent in the dormouse family. Characteristics The garden dormouse is gray or brown, with a whitish underside. It has black eye markings and large ears. Its hair is short, and its tail has a whi ...

'', the garden dormouse. More recently ''E. melanurus sensu lato'' has been split, western populations in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia being assigned to ''E quercinus'', while eastern populations were assigned to ''E. melanurus'', distributed across Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

. Since then, the North African population of ''E. quercinus'' has been recognised as a separate species, ''

Eliomys munbyanus The Maghreb garden dormouse (''Eliomys munbyanus'') is a nocturnal species of rodent in the family Gliridae. It is found in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Western Sahara. Its natural habitats vary from humid forests to semi-deserts. It is ...

'', the Maghreb garden dormouse.

Description

The Asian garden dormouse is a moderate-sized species with a head-and-body length of and a tail of . The dorsal fur is soft, and sometimes woolly, yellowish-grey, yellowish-brown or reddish-brown. The underparts and hind feet are white or cream, sometimes tinged with grey, and clearly delineated from the dorsal pelage. The head is paler at the muzzle but otherwise matches the dorsal colouring. The cheeks are cream, and a dark diagonal streak passes through the large eyes. The ears are large and oval, and behind them are several, often inconspicuous, pale patches. The tail has short hairs near the base and longer hairs near the tip; at its root, both the upper and lower surfaces match the dorsal colouring, and the rest of the tail is black, sometimes with a little white at the tip.

Distribution and habitat

The Asian garden dormouse occurs in North Africa and the Near East. Its range extends from northern

and

and southern

. Suitable habitat includes coastal dunes, sandy plateaus, arid steppes, shrubland, subtropical dry woodland, mountainsides, escarpments, rocky areas and limestone cliffs. Sometimes individuals are found in gardens, occasionally in houses and one was once found in a

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...

tent. It occurs from near sea level up to about , even living above the snowline in winter.

Ecology

This dormouse is mainly nocturnal, and forages both on the ground and in trees. It feeds on insects and other invertebrates, as well as small vertebrates. It is active throughout the year, but may at times enter a state of

torpor Torpor is a state of decreased physiological activity in an animal, usually marked by a reduced body temperature and metabolic rate. Torpor enables animals to survive periods of reduced food availability. The term "torpor" can refer to the time ...

, which may last for several days; the

basal metabolic rate Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the rate of food energy, energy expenditure per unit time by endotherm, endothermic animals at rest. It is reported in energy units per unit time ranging from watt (joule/second) to ml O2/min or joule per hour per kg b ...

is relatively low, and the torpor helps the animal to conserve energy. Little is known of its social behaviour, but animals caught from the wild are said to be very aggressive. Reproduction occurs in spring, the gestation period is 22 days and litters of about three young have been recorded. The skeletal remains of this dormouse have been found in the regurgitated pellets of

barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...

s and

long-eared owl The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook o ...

Status

The Asian garden dormouse has a wide range and is a common species. No particular threats have been identified, so the

has rated its conservation status as being of "

References

Bibliography

*Holden, M. E.. 2005. Family Gliridae. pp. 819–841 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1751843 Eliomys Rodents of North Africa Rodents of Asia Mammals of Western Asia Mammals of Turkey Mammals of the Arabian Peninsula Mammals described in 1840 Taxa named by Johann Andreas Wagner Taxonomy articles created by Polbot