| Bailey's Pocket Mice are solitary, nocturnal, and live in burrows. Pocket Mice mostly eat seeds, using their "pockets," fur-lined, external cheek pouches, to bring seeds to their nests, where they store them in preparation for leaner times. The fur lining of the cheek pouches in members of the family Heteromyidae is an adaptation for desert life: the seeds the rodents carry do not absorb body water the way they would if they were carried in the mouth. Bailey's Pocket Mouse is the only Sonoran desert rodent able to eat jojoba seeds, which are toxic to most mammals.
Sexual Dimorphism:
Males are larger than females.
Length:
Average:
211 mm males; 201 mm females
Range:
206-240 mm males; 176-228 mm females
Weight:
Average:
28.2 g males; 24.5 g females
References:
Merriam, C.H., 1894. Descriptions of eight new pocket mice (genus Perognathus) p. 262. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 46:262-268.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
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