The hairy-eared cerrado mouse (''Thalpomys lasiotis'') or hairy-eared akodont, is a

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 n ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

. It is found in the

cerrado The ''Cerrado'' (, ) is a vast ecoregion of tropical savanna in eastern Brazil, particularly in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Minas Gerais, and the Federal District. The core areas of the Cerrado biome are the ...

grassland of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Description

The hairy-eared cerrado mouse has a head-and-body length of less than and is generally smaller than the only other species in the genus, the

cerrado mouse The cerrado mouse (''Thalpomys cerradensis'') is a rodent species from South America. It is found in the cerrado of Brazil. Description The cerrado mouse has a head-and-body length of more than and is larger than the only other species in the g ...

(''Thalpomys cerradensis''). The two are similar in appearance, but the hairy-eared mouse has a more intense colour and longer, more lax fur. The dorsal pelage is reddish-brown, the individual hairs having blackish bases, orange central sections and blackish tips. There are also longer black guard hairs. The flanks and underparts are paler. The chin is buff and the eye-ring and cheeks orangish. The tail is brown above and pale beneath. The

diploid number Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respective ...

is 38.

Distribution and habitat

This mouse is restricted to the

ecoregion in Brazil, occurring in the states of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

, Rondônia and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

, and the

Federal District A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

. It inhabits various types of open grassland, with or without scrub, bushes and scattered trees, and wetter grassland areas.

Ecology

The hairy-eared cerrado mouse breeds in the dry season in some areas and in the wet season in others. Litter sizes of two and three have been recorded. The home range averages and it is the second most abundant rodent in the cerrado after the

hairy-tailed bolo mouse The hairy-tailed bolo mouse or hairy-tailed akodont (''Necromys lasiurus'') is a South American rodent species of the family Cricetidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay. Description The hairy-tailed bolo mouse grows to a ...

(''Necromys lasiurus'').

Status

This mouse has a wide range and is a common species. The cerrado grassland in which it lives is increasingly being threatened by the expansion of industrial-scale farming, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation. Although populations of the mouse may be in slight decline, 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 nat ...

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 ...

because it believes the rate of population decline is not fast enough to justify placing it in a more threatened category.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1768860 Thalpomys Rodents of South America Mammals of Brazil Endemic fauna of Brazil Fauna of the Cerrado Mammals described in 1916 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas