''Abrothrix longipilis'', also known as the long-haired grass mouse or long-haired akodont,Musser and Carleton, 2005, p. 1089 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

Cricetidae The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, and h ...

. It is found in central and southern

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

and

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. The southern Chilean ''

Abrothrix sanborni ''Abrothrix sanborni'', also known as Sanborn's grass mouse or Sanborn's akodont, is a species of rodent in the genus ''Abrothrix'' of family Cricetidae. It is found in southern Argentina and Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, ...

'' may not be distinct from this species.Musser and Carleton, 2005, p. 1090

Description

The long-haired grass mouse is a large, robust grass mouse, with a head-and-body length of about . It varies in colour across its wide range, but in most populations the dorsal hair is reddish-brown with long guard hairs, the flanks are more greyish and the underparts are grey. The tail is bicoloured, dark above and pale below.

Distribution and habitat

The species is found in central and southern Chile, and in Argentina as far southward as the Rio Negro and Chubut provinces of Patagonia. Its chief habitat is the ''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' forests of the region but it is also found in rocky areas, marshy areas, tussock grass and steppe with shrubs.

Ecology

The long-haired grass mouse is active both in the day and the night. It is an efficient excavator and digs burrows, but it is also a good tree climber. In Argentina it feeds on berries, seeds, insects, slugs, worms, fungi and fern spores. The diet differs in different parts of Chile, either consisting of insects and plant material, or insects and fungi, just insects or just fungi. Breeding takes place in the spring and summer. The litter size averages just below four and at least some individuals overwinter twice. Home ranges in the Patagonian ''Nothofagus'' forest vary between 0.4 and 4.8 individuals per hectare in spring, and 2.8 to 10.8 individuals per hectare in autumn. This grass mouse is preyed on by the barn owl, the

lesser horned owl The lesser horned owl or Magellanic horned owl (''Bubo magellanicus'') is a large owl of the genus ''Bubo'' found in southern South America, extending north to the central Andes. It has traditionally been classified as a subspecies of the great h ...

, the rufous-legged owl, the

white-tailed kite The white-tailed kite (''Elanus leucurus'') is a small raptor found in western North America and parts of South America. It replaces the related Old World black-winged kite in its native range. Taxonomy The white-tailed kite was described in ...

and the

South American gray fox The South American gray fox (''Lycalopex griseus''), also known as the Patagonian fox, the chilla or the gray zorro, is a species of ''Lycalopex'', the "false" foxes. It is endemic to the southern part of South America. Description The South A ...

. It is also an important reservoir species for the

Andes virus ''Andes orthohantavirus'' (ANDV), a species of '' Orthohantavirus,'' is a major causative agent of hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome (HCPS) and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in South America. It is named for the Andes mountains of Chile ...

, which is a major causative agent of the disease

Hantavirus cardiopulmonary syndrome Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is one of two potentially fatal syndromes of zoonotic origin caused by species of hantavirus. These include Black Creek Canal virus (BCCV), New York orthohantavirus (NYV), Monongahela virus (MGLV), ''Sin Nomb ...

Status

''A. longipilis'' has a wide range and is presumed to have a large total population. The population trend may be downward but it is an abundant species and the decline is not at a rate to cause concern, 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 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 ...

".Pardinas et al., 2008

References

Literature cited

* *Pardinas, U., D'Elia, G. & Patterson, B. 2008. . In IUCN. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2.
www.iucnredlist.org
. Downloaded on January 12, 2010. {{Taxonbar, from=Q305861 Mammals of Argentina Mammals of Chile Abrothrix Mammals described in 1837 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot