Barbary striped grass mouse

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Barbary striped grass mouse
Barbary Striped Grass Mouse.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Lemniscomys
Species:
L. barbarus
Binomial name
Lemniscomys barbarus
(Linnaeus, 1766)
The Barbary mouse, in an 1895 illustration The Barbary mouse (1895).jpg
The Barbary mouse, in an 1895 illustration

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]

References

  1. 1 2 Cassola, F. (2017) [errata version of 2016 assessment]. "Lemniscomys barbarus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2016: e.T11487A115518800. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T11487A22439107.en . Retrieved 3 December 2023.
  2. 1 2 Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN   978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC   62265494.
  3. 1 2 3 4 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.
  4. Tofts, Russel. Striped Mouse. Archived September 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine