The St Kilda house mouse (''Mus musculus muralis'') is an extinct subspecies of the house mouse found only on the islands of the St Kilda

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

of northwest

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. They were first described, alongside the

St Kilda field mouse The St Kilda field mouse (''Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis'') is a subspecies of the wood mouse that is endemic to the Scottish archipelago of St Kilda, the island west of Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides, and from mainland Scotland. Unique t ...

, by natural historian

Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton Major Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton (1871 – 17 January 1914) was a British/Irish natural historian, co-author with M. A. C. Hinton of ''A History of British Mammals'', which remained "the most thorough, accurate and scientific public ...

in 1899.

Origin

It is uncertain when they first arrived on the islands, but it is possible that they were unwittingly transported there during the Norse period. Isolated on the islands, the St Kilda house mouse diverged from its relatives. It became larger than the mainland varieties, although it had a number of traits in common with a subspecies found on Mykines in the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

, ''Mus musculus mykinessiensis''.

Extinction

When the last St Kildans were evacuated in 1930, the endemic house mouse became extinct very quickly,People and nature on St Kilda
/ref> as it was associated strictly with human settlement. Some specimens exist in museums. The

(''Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis''), a subspecies of the

wood mouse The wood mouse (''Apodemus sylvaticus'') is a murid rodent native to Europe and northwestern Africa. It is closely related to the yellow-necked mouse (''Apodemus flavicollis'') but differs in that it has no band of yellow fur around the neck, ha ...

, is still present.

References

Sources

* Harrisson, T. H. and

J. A. Moy-Thomas James Alan Moy-Thomas (12 September 1908 – 29 February 1944) was an English palaeontological ichthyologist. Son of Alan Moy-Thomas and his wife Gertrude, he was born in London. He had a younger brother Edward and an older sister Joan Carolin ...

. 1933. "The Mice of St Kilda, with Especial Reference to Their Prospects of Extinction and Present Status". ''

Journal of Animal Ecology The ''Journal of Animal Ecology'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research in all areas of animal ecology. It began publication in 1932, and as such is the second oldest journal of the British Ecological Society (after '' ...

'', 2: 109–115. * Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. "Superfamily Muroidea". pp. 894–1531 in ''Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference''. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

External links

St Kilda Mice and Wrens
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Kilda house mouse Mus (rodent) Rodent extinctions since 1500 Extinct mammals of Europe Extinct animals in the United Kingdom Rodents of Europe Endemic fauna of Scotland Fauna of St Kilda, Scotland Endemic biota of the Scottish islands Mammals described in 1899 Taxa named by Gerald Edwin Hamilton Barrett-Hamilton Extinct rodents