Nelson's pocket mouse (''Chaetodipus nelsoni'') is a species of

rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...

in the 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

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and in

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 ...

and

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

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 ...

. It is named in honor of the American naturalist Edward William Nelson.

Description

Nelson's pocket mouse is a medium-sized, long-tailed pocket mouse growing to a total length of including a tail of . The external cheek pouches are lined with fur, the ears are small and oval in shape and the body is slender. The front feet are small while the hind feet are larger, and the fur on the rump contains numerous dark-tipped, grooved spines. The color of the back and sides is brown, the hairs having a dark gray base, a grayish-fawn centre and black tips. There is a pale area round the eye. The underparts are whitish with a narrow fawn line separating the color zones. The tail has sparse hairs on the front half and a crest of hairs on the back half which has a tufted tip. It closely resembles the lined pocket mouse (''Chaetodipus lineatus'') but that species lacks the stiff spines on the rump.

Distribution and habitat

Nelson's pocket mouse is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to western Texas, south eastern New Mexico and central and northern Mexico. It is present in the Lower Sonoran life zone at altitudes up to about , the actual maximum limit being the lower boundary of the pine-oak-juniper woodlands. Its typical habitat is desert with sparse, scrubby vegetation. It is found on rocky slopes where cactus, creosote bush. desert spoon and '' Agave lechuguilla'' grow, on sandy flat areas, in rock piles, in old walls, around old buildings and in bare overgrazed pasture. It is the most common pocket mouse in most of its range. There are two subspecies, ''C. n. canescens'' from the northern half of the range and ''C. n. nelsoni'' from the southern half.

Behavior

Nelson's pocket mouse is a nocturnal species and does not hibernate in winter. It excavates a shallow burrow with several openings in which it spends the day and rears its young. After nightfall it emerges to forage, tending to move from the base of one plant to another, seldom staying long on open ground and running (rather than hopping) only when startled. It feeds mostly on seeds which it gathers and packs into its cheek pouches. It also consumes other parts of plants and may also eat insects. It breeds in spring and summer when litters of about three young are born after a gestation period of about thirty days.

Status

The population of Nelson's pocket mouse varies with the seasons. It is quite abundant in late summer but numbers have dwindled by the following spring as only about 14% of individuals live to be one year old. There are several national parks or other protected areas within its distribution range and no particular threats have been identified, so the

IUCN 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 status ...

has assessed this pocket mouse 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 ...

Description

Distribution and habitat

Behavior

Status

References

Further reading