Nelson's pocket mouse (''Chaetodipus nelsoni'') 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

Heteromyidae Heteromyidae is a family of rodents consisting of kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice, pocket mice and spiny pocket mice. Most heteromyids live in complex burrows within the deserts and grasslands of western North America, though species within the gen ...

. It is found in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and in

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

and

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It is named in honor of the American naturalist

Edward William Nelson Edward William Nelson (May 8, 1855 – May 19, 1934) was an American naturalist and ethnologist. A collector of specimens and field naturalist of repute, he became a member of several expeditions to survey the fauna and flora. He was part o ...

Description

Nelson's pocket mouse is a medium-sized, long-tailed pocket mouse growing to a total length of including a tail of . The external cheek pouches are lined with fur, the ears are small and oval in shape and the body is slender. The front feet are small while the hind feet are larger, and the fur on the rump contains numerous dark-tipped, grooved spines. The color of the back and sides is brown, the hairs having a dark gray base, a grayish-fawn centre and black tips. There is a pale area round the eye. The underparts are whitish with a narrow fawn line separating the color zones. The tail has sparse hairs on the front half and a crest of hairs on the back half which has a tufted tip. It closely resembles the lined pocket mouse (''Chaetodipus lineatus'') but that species lacks the stiff spines on the rump.

Distribution and habitat

Nelson's pocket mouse is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to western Texas, south eastern New Mexico and central and northern Mexico. It is present in the Lower Sonoran life zone at altitudes up to about , the actual maximum limit being the lower boundary of the pine-oak-juniper woodlands. Its typical habitat is desert with sparse, scrubby vegetation. It is found on rocky slopes where cactus,

creosote bush ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish language, Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of n ...

desert spoon ''Dasylirion wheeleri'' (desert spoon, spoon flower, sotol, or common sotol) is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family ( Asparagaceae), native to arid environments of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Description ...

and ''

Agave lechuguilla ''Agave lechuguilla'' (common name in Chihuahua: ''lechuguilla'', meaning "small lettuce") is an ''Agave'' species found only in the Chihuahuan Desert. The plant flowers once in its life and then dies. Description The plant reproduces most ...

'' grow, on sandy flat areas, in rock piles, in old walls, around old buildings and in bare overgrazed pasture. It is the most common pocket mouse in most of its range. There are two subspecies, ''C. n. canescens'' from the northern half of the range and ''C. n. nelsoni'' from the southern half.

Behavior

Nelson's pocket mouse is a nocturnal species and does not hibernate in winter. It excavates a shallow burrow with several openings in which it spends the day and rears its young. After nightfall it emerges to forage, tending to move from the base of one plant to another, seldom staying long on open ground and running (rather than hopping) only when startled. It feeds mostly on seeds which it gathers and packs into its cheek pouches. It also consumes other parts of plants and may also eat insects. It breeds in spring and summer when litters of about three young are born after a gestation period of about thirty days.

Status

The population of Nelson's pocket mouse varies with the seasons. It is quite abundant in late summer but numbers have dwindled by the following spring as only about 14% of individuals live to be one year old. There are several national parks or other protected areas within its distribution range and no particular threats have been identified, so the

IUCN 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 this pocket mouse 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 ...

Description

Distribution and habitat

Behavior

Status

References

Further reading