The Chinese dormouse or Sichuan dormouse (''Chaetocauda sichuanensis'') is a species of
dormouse
A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...
found in subalpine mixed forests in northern
Sichuan
Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...
,
China, where it is known from
Jiuzhaigou
Jiuzhaigou (; ) is a nature reserve and national park located in the north of Sichuan Province in southwestern China. A long valley running north to south, Jiuzhaigou was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biospher ...
and Wanglang Nature Reserves. It is known only from two captured female specimens taken in the
Wanglang Natural Reserve, and was first described by Wang Youzhi in 1985 and relisted by Corbet and Hill (1991, 1992) under a new
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
as ''Chaetocauda sichuanensis''. It is currently the only member of the genus ''Chaetocauda''. The two specimens had head and body lengths of 90mm and 91mm and tail lengths of 92mm and 102mm, respectively. They weighed 24.5 and 36.0 g. It is nocturnal and arboreal, nesting in trees around 3 metres above the ground, and was found above an altitude of 2500m above sea level. It is classified as endangered by the
IUCN as of the 2004 Red List due to its small, isolated habitat
References
*Wang, Youzhi. 1985. A new genus and species of Gliridae. Acta Theriologica Sinica, Vol. 5 (1985), pp. 67–75.
External links
The Dormouse Hollow* An illustration o
Dormice
Mammals of Asia
EDGE species
Mammals described in 1985
{{rodent-stub