Barbary Striped Grass Mouse
| Barbary striped grass mouse | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Muridae |
| Genus: | Lemniscomys |
| Species: | L. barbarus |
| Binomial name | |
| Lemniscomys barbarus (Linnaeus, 1766) |
|
The Barbary striped grass mouse (Lemniscomys barbarus) is a small rodent of the suborder Myomorpha. This monotypic species is native to coastal Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in northwest Africa.[1][2][3] In the past it was believed to also occur throughout a large part of Sub-Saharan Africa, but these populations are now treated as a separate species, the Heuglin's Striped Grass Mouse (L. zebra).[2][3] These relatively small Lemniscomys are among the species most commonly kept in captivity.[4]
The Barbary, Heuglin's and Hoogstral's Striped Grass Mouse (L. hoogstraali) form a group that have a distinctly dark and light striped pelage.[3] Other Lemniscomys either have more spotty/interrupted stripes or only a single dark stripe along the back.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b van der Straeten, E. (2008). "Lemniscomys barbarus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/11487. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ a b Wilson, Don E.; Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds (2005). Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=13001407.
- ^ a b c d Carleton, M D., and Van der Straeten, E. (1997). Morphological differentiation among Subsaharan and north African populations of the Lemniscomys barbarus complex (Rodentia : Muridae). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 110(4): 640-680.
- ^ Tofts, Russel. Striped Mouse. Striped Mouse Archived September 6, 2007 at the Wayback Machine