The long-tailed birch mouse (''Sicista caudata'') is a species of

birch mouse Birch mice (genus ''Sicista'') are small jumping rodents that resemble mice with long, tufted tails and very long hind legs, allowing for remarkable leaps. They are the only extant members of the family Sminthidae. They are native to Eurasian for ...

found in

Northeast Asia Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical subregion of Asia; its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the Pacific Ocean. The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by American historian and political scient ...

. It has been reported from the

Ussuri The Ussuri or Wusuli (russian: Уссури; ) is a river that runs through Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krais, Russia and the southeast region of Northeast China. It rises in the Sikhote-Alin mountain range, flowing north and forming part of the ...

region of

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh ...

Island and

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai (russian: Приморский край, r=Primorsky kray, p=prʲɪˈmorskʲɪj kraj), informally known as Primorye (, ), is a federal subject (a krai) of Russia, located in the Far East region of the country and is a part of t ...

in Russia, and northern

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

. It is listed as data deficient by the IUCN.

Description

The long-tailed birch mouse grows to a length of about with a tail of up to twice its body length. The dorsal fur is pale greyish-brown tinged with yellow and along the spine are longer hairs tipped with black forming a vertebral stripe. The flanks are paler yellowish-brown and the underparts greyish creamy-white. The tail is a uniform light yellowish-grey. The

zygomatic arch In anatomy, the zygomatic arch, or cheek bone, is a part of the skull formed by the zygomatic process of the temporal bone (a bone extending forward from the side of the skull, over the opening of the ear) and the temporal process of the zygo ...

is widest in the middle, the premolars are large and the back of the skull is rounded.

Distribution and habitat

The long-tailed birch mouse is native to northeastern China and the Ussuri region of Russia as well as being found on Sakhalin Island. It is found in mountain taiga, in coniferous forest, in mixed forests and on steppe grassland.

Behaviour

The ecology of the long-tailed birch mouse is little known. It hibernates for at least six months during the winter. It builds its nest, made of a woven ball of grass, in crevices or in bushes. Litters usually consist of four to six young. This birch mouse eats green plants, berries but mostly feeds on seeds, being chiefly active at night and spending the daytime in a shallow burrow.

Status

The long-tailed birch mouse has a wide range, at least some of which is in protected areas. It is a poorly known species and in general appears to be uncommon, but it may be more plentiful than is currently realised. The population trend is unknown, 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 listed it as " data deficient".

References

External links

Smithsonian profile
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2690391 Sicista Mammals of Korea Mammals of Pakistan Mammals described in 1907 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas