The Roach's mouse-tailed dormouse or ground dormouse, also known simply as the mouse-tailed dormouse, (''Myomimus roachi'') 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 n ...

in the family Gliridae. It is found in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

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

, and possibly the far east of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Distribution

Historically found in Turkey and south-eastern Bulgaria. As

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

and

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

trees were removed for agriculture and forestry, its distribution became restricted to a few small spinneys in

Edirne Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis ( Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders ...

, in north-west Turkey. In 2017 the species was confirmed to be still living in Bulgaria.

Habitat

Roach's mouse-tailed dormouse lives in scrub and semi-open habitats with trees or bushes such as

orchard An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of ...

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

s, hedgerows in arable land, and river banks. Old trees are essential elements in their habitat because the dormouse uses hollows of old trees to sleep during the day or rest at night.

Behavior

The mouse-tailed dormouse is nocturnal, which means that they are active at night. Dormice are active from 1–2 hours before sunset till 1–2 hours after sunrise. In addition, the mouse-tailed dormouse is not strictly arboreal as it uses both trees and ground for moving and feeding. It also uses open areas such as grasslands, cereal fields, and even recently plowed

agricultural land Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with ...

for moving and searching for food (such as

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 ...

s and

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

sAulagnier 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.), which makes it easier food for

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

s. The same

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

uses few different

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s with hollows for resting, and one tree can be used for one or more consecutive days. The same tree hollows are used by different individuals at different time.

Natural facts

The mouse-tailed dormouse is distributed throughout east Europe, most predominantly East Bulgaria. It inhabits semi-open agricultural habitats with trees or bushes. It is most active from the first half of April to the second half of November. Copulations are around the second half of April to the beginning of May. Young females may have 5-6 young per litter while older females may have larger litters.Milchev, Boyan. Gerogiev, Valeri. 2012. Roach’s mouse-tailed dormouse Myomimus roachi distribution and conservation in Bulgaria. Volume 23 (2): 67–71, 2012

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Local names

* Bulgarian language, Bulgarian ''мишевиден сънливец'' /misheviden sǎnlivets/ (lit. "mouse-like sleeper"), ''български мишевиден сънливец'' /bǎlgarski misheviden sǎnlivets/ (lit. "Bulgarian mouse-like sleeper"), ''български сънливец'' /bǎlgarski sǎnlivets/ (lit. "Bulgarian sleeper") *

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''μυωξός του Roach'' (lit. "Roach's dormouse") * Turkish ''yer yediuyuru'' (lit. "ground seven-sleepers"), ''farebenzeri yediuyur'' (lit. "mouse-like seven-sleepers"), ''faremsi uyur'' (lit. "mouse-like sleeper"), ''sıçankuyruklu fındıkfaresi'' (lit. "mouse-tailed hazel-mouse"), ''boz kakırca'' (lit. "gray dormouse")

References

External links

* Milchev, Boyan. Georgiev, Valeri. 2012

Roach’s mouse-tailed dormouse Myomimus roachi distribution and conservation in Bulgaria. Volume 23 (2): 67–71, 2012 {{Taxonbar, from=Q1751079 Myomimus dormouse, Roach's mouse-tailed Mammals of Turkey Vulnerable animals Vulnerable biota of Europe Mammals described in 1937 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot