The southern birch mouse (''Sicista subtilis'') is a species of
birch mouse
Birch mice (genus ''Sicista'') are small jumping rodents that resemble mice with long, tufted tails and very long hind legs, allowing for remarkable leaps. They are the only extant members of the family Sminthidae. They are native to Eurasian for ...
in the family
Sminthidae
Sminthidae is a family of mouse-like jumping rodents. They are represented by only one extant genus, ''Sicista'', represented by 19 species found throughout most of Eurasia, from central Europe east to Siberia, and south to southern China. However, ...
.
It is native to southern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
, and potentially northern
Mongolia
Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
and
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 ...
.
Taxonomy
The
Hungarian birch mouse (''S. trizona'') and
Nordmann's birch mouse
Nordmann's birch mouse (''Sicista loriger'') is a species of birch mouse in the family Sminthidae. It is named after Finnish biologist Alexander von Nordmann. It is native to eastern and southeastern Europe.
Taxonomy
It was long thought to be ...
(''S. loriger'') were previously thought to be subspecies representing isolated western populations of ''S. subtilis'', but phylogenetic and anatomical evidence supports them being distinct species.
A 2018 study detected a distinct, previously unknown genetic lineage of ''S. subtilis'' in the
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
.
Description
The most prominent characteristic of the southern birch mouse is the dark stripe down the center of the back, which is bordered by two narrow bright stripes on both sides. From head to rump it measures from 56 to 72 mm, with a tail from 110 to 130% of the main body length. The background fur color is gray-brown.
Ecology
The southern birch mouse is pronouncedly a
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
dweller. It makes a burrow in the summer and
hibernates. It eats green plants and insects.
References
* Macdonald D. : ''Die Große Enzyklopädie der Säugetiere'', Könemann Verlag in der Tandem Verlag GmbH, Königswinter, 2004.
* Detlef Schilling u. a. : BLV Bestimmungsbuch Säugetiere, BLV Verlagsgesellschaft, 1983
''This page is based on a translation of the
corresponding article from the
German Wikipedia
The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia.
Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia), ...
.''
Sicista
Mammals of Russia
Fauna of Kazakhstan
Mammals of Mongolia
Mammals of China
Mammals described in 1773
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