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.
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
- 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.
- Rodent Specialist Group 1996. Pseudomys chapmani. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 19 July 2007.
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