The stone dormouse (''Graphiurus rupicola'') 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 Gliridae. It is found in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, and possibly

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. Its natural habitat is rocky areas in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

. Though it has a limited range, it is a fairly common species 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 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 ...

Description

The stone dormouse is a moderate sized species with a head-and-body length of and a tail of . The fur on the back is woolly, thick and rather long, being around on the rump with guard hairs of up to . The dorsal colour varies from silvery-grey to dull grey or dark grey. The underparts are white or cream tinted with dark grey, and there is a sharp colour divide between the dorsal and ventral areas. The skull is somewhat flattened, the ears are fairly large and oval and the eyes are large. There is a conspicuous mask around the eyes and the cheeks are white, this colour extending in a stripe across the shoulders. The hind feet are usually white but may have dark streaks on top. The tail is long and has short fur near the base and longer hair near the tip, where the hair may be as long as . The tail is grey with many white hairs, and has a white tip.

Distribution and habitat

The stone dormouse 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 southwestern Africa where its range includes mountainous parts of Namibia and South Africa, with records from a single location in Angola, mostly at altitudes above and up to at least . Its typical habitat is in rocky outcrops and in kopjes (rocky, elevated areas on an otherwise flat plain) where it lives in crevices. It mostly inhabits

or Karoo transition areas, though the specimens found in Angola were found in evergreen woodland on a mountain summit.

Status

The stone dormouse is a fairly common species in suitable habitat and faces no particular threats. It occurs in several protected areas and the

has assessed its conservation status as being of "

References

*Holden, M. E.. 2005. Family Gliridae. pp. 819–841 ''in'' Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. {{Taxonbar, from=Q5429786 Graphiurus Mammals described in 1925 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Taxa named by Martin Hinton Taxonomy articles created by Polbot