The steppe mouse or mound-building mouse (''Mus spicilegus'') 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
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 grassland and other open areas in
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
,
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 Macedon ...
,
Croatia
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, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
,
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
,
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
,
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
,
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
,
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
,
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
, and
Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
.
Taxonomy
''Mus spicilegus'' ranges from Austria to Southern Ukraine and Greece.
[ Two subspecies are recognised, ''M. s. spicilegus'', the nominate subspecies occupying most of the range, and ''M. s. adriaticus'', an isolated sub-population on the Adriatic coast. It is one of four species of mice in the ''Mus'' subgenus with a western ]Palearctic
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa.
The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...
distribution, the others being the Macedonian mouse
The Macedonian mouse (''Mus macedonicus'') is a species of rodent in the family Muridae and order Rodentia. This rodent lives in the area from eastern Georgia and western Bulgaria to Israel. It is considered part of a Paleoarctic group along wit ...
(''Mus macedonicus'') (Balkans to Israel and Iran), the Algerian mouse
The Algerian mouse (''Mus spretus''), also known as the western Mediterranean mouse, is a wild species of mouse closely related to the house mouse, native to open habitats around the western Mediterranean.
Description
The Algerian mouse close ...
(''Mus spretus'') (Southern France, Iberian Peninsula, Balearic Islands, Morocco to Tunisia) and the Cypriot mouse
The Cypriot mouse (''Mus cypriacus'') is a species of mouse endemic to Cyprus. Its primary habitat seems to be the vineyards and fields of the Troödos Mountains region.
The mouse was recognized as a new species in 2004 by Thomas Cucchi, a re ...
(Mus cypriacus) . Based on the molecular clock
The molecular clock is a figurative term for a technique that uses the mutation rate of biomolecules to deduce the time in prehistory when two or more life forms diverged. The biomolecular data used for such calculations are usually nucleoti ...
hypothesis, ''M. spicilegus'' and ''M. macedonicus'' seem to have diverged quite recently, between 0.29 and 0.17 mya, whereas the lineages giving rise to these and ''M. spretus'' diverged around 1 mya.
Description
The head-and-body length is between and the tail is between long. The colour is mostly a uniform grey with no hint of redness, but some populations are bicoloured and have paler underparts. The tail is more slender than that of other related species. This mouse is very similar in appearance to the common house mouse
The house mouse (''Mus musculus'') is a small mammal of the order Rodentia, characteristically having a pointed snout, large rounded ears, and a long and almost hairless tail. It is one of the most abundant species of the genus '' Mus''. Althoug ...
(''Mus musculus''), and the two are often confused. The most significant difference is the mound-building proclivities of ''Mus spicilegus'', but these are only apparent at certain times of year.
Ecology
This species is found in grassland, steppe, cultivated land, orchards, clearings and woodland borders. It is unique among mice in its habit of building mounds in the autumn. These are constructed by a number of mice and can be up to in diameter, although a more normal size is .[ Some four to fourteen mice cooperate to build the mounds, and these have been shown to be closely related, probably through the mother's line.] The mound is built over storage chambers which can hold up to of seeds and grains, underneath which is a nesting chamber. Up to twenty mounds per hectare (eight per acre) is typical but there can be many more than this under particularly favourable conditions.
Breeding is seasonal in this mouse, taking place between about March and October. Young females, six to eight months old which have spent the winter in the mound, breed in the spring and may have four or five litters of young during the year; in central Ukraine, the litter size averages 6.7 young. During the summer, most animals live in simple burrows, but some continue to inhabit the mound, and if it survives intact, it may be reused in the autumn for winter quarters. New mounds are constructed between about mid-August and mid-November, when cereal crops are maturing and other plants producing seeds. The construction is done by juveniles, three to four weeks old, and the mound is their winter home, with adults occasionally cohabiting.[ The mounds usually take two or three weeks to construct, and their size is dependent on the number of animals involved and the abundance of the food supply. The seeds of 84 species of plants have been found stored in the mound.][
]
Status
The steppe mouse is a common species with a wide range, and 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 natu ...
has rated 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 ...
" while noting that the intensification of agriculture and destruction of grassy steppe may be a future threat.
References
External links
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q962616
Mammals described in 1882
Mus (rodent)
Rodents of Europe
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot