The Indomalayan pencil-tailed tree mouse or simply pencil-tailed tree mouse (''Chiropodomys gliroides'') is a species of arboreal rodent in the family

Muridae The Muridae, or murids, are the largest family of rodents and of mammals, containing approximately 1,383 species, including many species of mice, rats, and gerbils found naturally throughout Eurasia, Africa, and Australia. The name Muridae come ...

. It is found in northeastern India, southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

(including Hainan),

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, Thailand,

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

, Cambodia, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, and Indonesia ( Java,

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, the Mentawai Islands, and some other islands). This locally abundant but patchily distributed species occurs in primary and secondary forests, without affinity to particular forest types. It can suffer from deforestation and is sometimes harvested for consumption.

Nesting

Like all members of the genus '' Chiropodomys'', it builds its nest between stalks of bamboo. It does this by constructing a bundle of leaves and branches between the two stalks, then gnawing through part of the bamboo stalks so that they may enter into the nest. The mice are sociable in nature, and may share their nests with other mice.

References

Chiropodomys Rats of Asia Rodents of Cambodia Rodents of China Rodents of India Rodents of Indonesia Rodents of Laos Rodents of Malaysia Rodents of Myanmar Rodents of Thailand Rodents of Vietnam Fauna of Hainan Least concern biota of Asia Mammals described in 1856 Taxa named by Edward Blyth Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Murinae-stub