The hairy-eared cerrado mouse (''Thalpomys lasiotis'') or hairy-eared akodont, is a

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 ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. It is found in the

cerrado The Cerrado () is a vast ecoregion of Tropics, tropical savanna in central Brazil, being present in the states of Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí, Bahia, Minas Gerais, São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Paraná ...

grassland of

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

Description

The hairy-eared cerrado mouse has a head-and-body length of less than and is generally smaller than the only other species in the genus, the

cerrado mouse The cerrado mouse (''Thalpomys cerradensis'') is a rodent species from South America. It is found in the cerrado of Brazil. Description The cerrado mouse has a head-and-body length of more than and is larger than the only other species in the ...

(''Thalpomys cerradensis''). The two are similar in appearance, but the hairy-eared mouse has a more intense colour and longer, more lax fur. The dorsal pelage is reddish-brown, the individual hairs having blackish bases, orange central sections and blackish tips. There are also longer black guard hairs. The flanks and underparts are paler. The chin is buff and the eye-ring and cheeks orangish. The tail is brown above and pale beneath. The diploid number is 38.

Distribution and habitat

This mouse is restricted to the

ecoregion in Brazil, occurring in the states of

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

Rondônia Rondônia () is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the northern subdivision of the country (central-western part). It is bordered by Acre (state), Acre in the west, Amazonas, Brazil, Amazonas in the north, Mato Grosso in the east, and Bo ...

and

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, and the

Federal District A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

. It inhabits various types of open grassland, with or without scrub, bushes and scattered trees, and wetter grassland areas.

Ecology

The hairy-eared cerrado mouse breeds in the dry season in some areas and in the wet season in others. Litter sizes of two and three have been recorded. The home range averages and it is the second most abundant rodent in the cerrado after the hairy-tailed bolo mouse (''Necromys lasiurus'').

Status

This mouse has a wide range and is a common species. The cerrado grassland in which it lives is increasingly being threatened by the expansion of industrial-scale farming, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation. Although populations of the mouse may be in slight decline, 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 assessed 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 ...

because it believes the rate of population decline is not fast enough to justify placing it in a more threatened category.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1768860 Thalpomys Rodents of Brazil Endemic mammals of Brazil Fauna of the Cerrado Mammals described in 1916 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas