Barbary striped grass mouse

Barbary striped grass mouse
Conservation status

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
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 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. 1.0 1.1 van der Straeten, E. (2008). "Lemniscomys barbarus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.1. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Wilson, D. E.; Reeder, D. M., eds. (2005). Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 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. Striped Mouse Archived September 6, 2007 at the Wayback Machine