Hi people,
I filmed this mouse species while walking in a dry mud area with sparse short grasses several hundred meters from the shore of Lake Manyara in northern Tanzania.
Does anyone have a clue what it might be? Hope so!
Best regards,
Pieter de Groot Boersma
Dear all Just an apology that I haven’t been able to upload trip reports for the past couple of...
At this time of year I start thinking about all the mammals I’d like to see in the next...
Following on from Jon’s failed attempt to see Fisher, I’m adding my own tale of an unsuccessful trip. These...
There is a new paper on the phylogeny of Feliformia (cats, civets, mongooses, hyenas and relatives), available open-access here....
Interesting new study indicating that an unusual subspecies of Golden Jackal actually represents the earliest diverging lineage of holarctic...
Dear Friends, Very sorry to bother you again for rodent ID. Actually I am not very good at rodents...
Hello, After a lot of work – mainly from other people – the new mammalwatching.com is now live and...
Here is a summary of a recently published article on lemming speciation, which may have implications for larger fauna:...
Genetically Welsh, spiritually Australian, currently in New York City. I've also lived and worked in London, Canberra, Paris and Lusaka, and visited over 100 countries. There's more here.
Hi Pieter,
Do you remember approximately how long the body and the tail were in cm?
Hi Charles, thank you for your reply! It was back in 2012, so hard to guess. It seems the tail is slightly longer then the body, is that an important feature? How many species are possible in the area? vdinets (below) opted Harwood’s Gerbil.
Cheers!
Looks like a gerbil to me. Gerbillus harwoodi, perhaps?
Hi vdinets, I haven’t thought of a gerbil, but I think you are right! The question is, how many species are possible in that area?
If its small then its likely a Gerbillus – with pusillus being the most common in the area. If it was large, then Tatera robusta is the most likely option. Either way, its a gerbil.
Charles
How small is small? http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=190942
Is his head-body lenght 3 or 7 cm long? Its tail is nearly 1/3 longer as its head-body length. Its tail colour matches my footage, the tail in my footage is slightly longer as the head-body length. My gerbil was definetely bigger then 3 cm head-body lenght.
Looking at Tatera robusta: http://www.planet-mammiferes.org/drupal/en/node/40?indice2=Photos%2FRongeur%2FMyomo%2FGerbil%2FTateRob1.jpg
How long is this species? Its tail is slightly longer as its head-body length. Which is also in my video. The tail colour seems to be black, so the colour doesn’t match my footage.
I’m an amateur with these critters so correct me if I’m using the wrong identification technique!
The Gerbillus head and body is definitely longer than 3cm. However I won’t have my books with me until early November, so I won’t be able to give you more advice until then. I suggest you drop me an email in early November and I’ll pull out the figures for you.
Thanks Charles, will do!