Canyon mouse

Canyon mouse
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Cricetidae
Genus:	Peromyscus
species group:	P. crinitus
Species:	P. crinitus
Binomial name
Peromyscus crinitus (Merriam, 1891)

The canyon mouse (Peromyscus crinitus), is a gray-brown mouse found in many states of the western United States and northern Mexico. Its preferred habitat is arid, rocky desert. It is the only species in the Peromyscus crinitus species group.

Canyon mice eat seeds, green vegetation, and insects. They breed in the spring and summer. Females can produce multiple litters of between two and five young every year. Canyon mice are nocturnal and are active through the year. They usually nest among or below rocks in underground burrows.

References

1. Linzey, A.V.; Timm, R.; Álvarez-Castañeda, S.T. & Lacher, T. (2008). "Peromyscus crinitus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2008. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 27 August 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of least concern.

• Biotics Database. 2005. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, NatureServe, and the network of Natural Heritage Programs and Conservation Data Centers.
• Burt, W. H. and R. P. Grossenheider. A field guide to the mammals. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1980.
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. pp. 894–1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.