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Conservation Status:
Perognathus alticola alticola, the white-eared pocket mouse, is a Critically Endangered subspecies; the parent species and the subspecies P. alticola inexpectatus, the Tehachapi white-eared pocket mouse, are Near Threatened.
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| One subspecies of the White-eared Pocket Mouse may be extinct, and the other is extremely rare, consisting of isolated, relict populations near the western Mojave Desert in California. White-eared Pocket Mice are nocturnal and probably closely resemble Great Basin Pocket Mice in habits. Presumably they eat seeds, green vegetation, and insects, hibernate in winter, and do not have to have access to green vegetation or water to get the water they need to survive. Like other rodents in the family Heteromyidae (pocket mice, kangaroo mice, and kangaroo rats), they have a fur-lined pouch on each cheek, next to the mouth, that they use to transport seeds to their burrows.
Also known as:
Tehachapi Pocket Mouse
Sexual Dimorphism:
Males are larger than females.
Length:
Average:
155.2 mm
Range:
130-183 mm
Weight:
Range:
16-24 g
References:
Rhoads, S.N., 1894. Descriptions of new species of North American mammals with remarks on species of the genus Perognathus, p. 412. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 1893:404-412.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
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