The Ethiopian white-footed mouse or white-footed stenocephalemys (''Stenocephalemys albipes'') 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 n ...

in the family Muridae. It lives in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and Eritrea. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

and tropical high-altitude shrubland.

Description

This is a medium-sized species weighing about , with an average head-and-body length of and a tail of . The ears are large, rounded and scantily haired. The dorsal fur is long, sleek and glossy, sandy brown, and slightly darker brown along the spine. Individual hairs have grey bases and sandy brown shafts. The underparts are abruptly delineated from the upper parts and are pale grey, the individual hairs having darker grey bases. The limbs are short and brownish-grey, the feet having white hairs on the upper surface, except for a dark mark above the metatarsals on the hind feet. The tail is bicoloured and appears naked, being dark above and pale below.

Distribution and habitat

The Ethiopian white-footed mouse 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 else ...

to the Ethiopian highlands where it occurs on either side of the

Great Rift Valley The Great Rift Valley is a series of contiguous geographic trenches, approximately in total length, that runs from Lebanon in Asia to Mozambique in Southeast Africa. While the name continues in some usages, it is rarely used in geology as it ...

, with a separate smaller population in the mountains in the northern part of the country, where it was studied in detail in the Degua Tembien district. Its habitat is primarily upland forests and scrubland, but it also inhabits rough grassland and pasture, at an altitudinal range of between about .

Ecology

This species is nocturnal and mainly terrestrial, although it also scrambles around in bushes. Its diet is mainly vegetable matter, including the berries of the

bush plum ''Carissa spinarum'', the conkerberry or bush plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), widely distributed in tropical regions of Africa, Southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Indian Ocean. It is most well known ...

, olive, juniper,

Abyssinian rose ''Otostegia integrifolia'', more commonly known as Abyssinian rose, a plant belonging to the family Lamiaceae, is endemic to Ethiopia, in the dry evergreen woodlands of the Bale Mountains, Tigray, Gondar, Wollo and Gojjam regions, North Shew ...

and ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of the ...

'' spp., as well as green leaves. Breeding takes place at any time of year but peaks in the wet season, from September to November. The average litter size is four. Gestation takes 23 days and weaning takes place at 24 to 29 days. Longevity for adults may be less than one year, and the population size may be controlled by

predators Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

such as

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

Status

The Ethiopian white-footed mouse is probably the commonest rodent in the mountains of Ethiopia above , and particularly common around . It has a wide range and large total population. No particular threats have been identified, so 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 nat ...

has assessed its conservation status as 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 ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1769886 Stenocephalemys Mammals of Ethiopia Mammals described in 1842 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot