Bailey's pocket mouse (''Chaetodipus baileyi'') is a species of rodent of the subfamily
Perognathinae, family
Heteromyidae
Heteromyidae is a family of rodents consisting of kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice, pocket mice and spiny pocket mice. Most heteromyids live in complex burrows within the deserts and grasslands of western North America, though species within the ...
.
It is found in
Baja California
Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...
,
Sinaloa
Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales.
It is located in northwest Mexic ...
and
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
in Mexico and in
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
,
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
and
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
[
]
Description
Bailey's pocket mouse has an adult length of between , males being larger than females. Males average while females average .
Taxonomy
Bailey's pocket mouse was first described by Clinton Hart Merriam in 1894 using a specimen collected by Vernon Bailey in Magdalena, Mexico on 3 November 1889.
Ecology
This pocket mouse lives in a burrow and is nocturnal. When it ventures into the open to search for food it is cautious, remaining as far as possible under cover or in the shadow of plants. When the risk of predation by owls is high it tries to avoid crossing open ground between shrubs, especially on moonlit nights.[ Pocket mice feed on seeds which they carry in fur lined pouches on the outside of their cheeks, taking them back to their burrow for storage; this arrangement is advantageous to the mouse as it prevents the seeds from getting wet as would happen if they were carried in the mouth. Bailey's pocket mouse is the only known animal to be able to digest the wax found inside the jojoba nut and is the only rodent from the ]Sonoran Desert
The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...
that is able to eat the seeds, because they are poisonous to most other mammals.[
In the 1970s, researchers removed ]kangaroo rat
Kangaroo rats, small mostly nocturnal rodents of genus ''Dipodomys'', are native to arid areas of western North America. The common name derives from their bipedal form. They hop in a manner similar to the much larger kangaroo, but developed thi ...
s from an ecosystem in the Chihuahuan Desert, and for many years, no other small rodents moved in to fill the niche they left. In 1995, twenty years after the experimental removal, Bailey's pocket mouse moved into the area and filled the gap, almost completely replacing the missing kangaroo rats.
Status
Bailey's pocket mouse varies in abundance between about two and eighty animals per hectare, depending on the amount of rainfall and hence on its food supply. No particular threats to this species have been identified, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...
has listed its conservation status as being of "least concern
A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
".[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q153608
Chaetodipus
Rodents of Mexico
Rodents of the United States
Mammals described in 1894
Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot