Western pebble-mound mouse

Western pebble-mound mouse
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Class:Mammalia
Order:Rodentia
Family:Muridae
Genus:Pseudomys
Species: P. chapmani
Binomial name
Pseudomys chapmani
Kitchener, 1980

The western pebble-mound mouse (Pseudomys chapmani) is a species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is native to and found only in Australia, where it lives in pebbly soils in arid tussock grassland and acacia woodland. According to the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the species is restricted to the non-coastal, central and eastern parts of the Pilbara, Western Australia. It was formerly more widespread.

A mound of the western pebble-mound mouse, centre foreground, amongst Triodia hummocks in the Pilbara region of Western Australia

Like other pebble-mound mice, the western pebble-mound mouse creates its own microhabitat by scattering a mound of pebbles around its burrows. The air temperature around the pebbles warms up faster in the morning than the pebbles themselves, causing the formation of small droplets of dew by condensation.

References

  1. ↑ Burbidge, A.A. (2016). "Pseudomys chapmani". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2016: e.T42648A115198963. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T42648A22398949.en. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  • Musser, G.G.; Carleton, M.D. (2005). "Superfamily Muroidea". In Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 1455. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.


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