The Eastern puna mouse (''Punomys kofordi'') 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

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 over 870 species, it is either the largest or second-largest family ...

Taxonomy

''Punomys kofordi'' was described in 1995 by V. Pacheco and J. L. Patton, based on specimens collected in 1951 and 1970 by Carl B. Koford, after whom the species is named. It is the second member of the previously

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

genus ''

Punomys ''Punomys'' is a genus of rodents 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 over 8 ...

''.

Description

The Eastern puna mouse is a large, stout mouse with long dark-brown fur on the top of the body and gray fur on the bottom of the body. Adults are approximately long. It has a longer relative tail length and shorter hind limbs than its sister species '' P. lemminus'', with a smaller skull. It is overall darker than ''P. lemminus''. The two species may have separated due to expanding glacial coverage during the Pleistocene, which would have physically separated the populations. The Eastern puna mouse is endemic to southern

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. One specimen, which may have been either ''Punomys kofordi'', ''P. lemminus'', or a new species was found in

La Paz La Paz, officially Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Aymara language, Aymara: Chuqi Yapu ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With 755,732 residents as of 2024, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities by populati ...

, Bolivia in 1987, and identified with the genus by Salazar-Bravo et al in 2011. Aside from that, no specimens have been collected since 1970. Within Peru, it is found in moist areas within

puna grassland The puna grassland ecoregion, part of the Andean montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru,Pulgar Vidal, Javier: Geografía del Per ...

at elevations of to in the

Kallawaya The Kallawaya are an indigenous group living in the Andes of Bolivia. They live in the Bautista Saavedra Province and Muñecas Province of the La Paz Department but are best known for being an itinerant group of traditional healers that t ...

mountain range, a section of the Cordillera Oriental. This is provisionally the third-highest known range of any species of mammal, after the Punta de Vacas leaf-eared mouse and ''P. lemminus''. One specimen, found in 2023, extended the range of ''Punomys'' to . It was provisionally assigned to ''P. lemminus'', but the authors were not certain of its identification between that and ''P. kofordi''; if it were re-identified as ''P. kofordi'', then it would have the second-highest known range instead of ''P. lemminus''. The Eastern puna mouse's habitat is differentiated from ''P. lemminus'' by higher annual rainfall. They were often found near ''

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Mo ...

'' bushes. Several Eastern puna mice may share a burrow. While there is limited data, they likely breed during the summer wet season, with litters of two to three.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1762522 Punomys Mammals of Peru Mammals described in 1995