The young leave the nest after one month. Very little is known about the reproduction of the hispid pocket mouse, but it is believed that they have two or more litters per year of from two to nine (usually five or six) young each. In the spring and early summer insects and green plants are also consumed. Seeds of shrubs and herbs such as sagebrush, sunflower and cacti are the principal food of the pocket mouse. The rock pocket mouse,Chaetodipus intermedius, exhibits weak rump spines (see Photo 1 and Photo 2) and has coarse fur. During the cold parts of winter, hispid pocket mice are usually inactive, but do not become torpid.Īdults may attain the following dimensions: total length 190-237 mm tail 71-114 mm hind foot 23-30 mm ear 8-14 mm weight 40-60 grams. Seeds are stored in other underground chambers. A nest of dry grasses and plant fibers is built, sometimes utilizing the overhead protection of rocks. They sleep throughout winter and enter into a torpid state, however, they do not hibernate. They are active during the warm parts of the year, after which, they go to sleep. Little pocket mice are active during the night. pocket mouse, Perognathus longimembris, which. The entrance is plugged with loose soil in the daytime. A little pocket mouse would live in a burrow excavated in the midst of their natural habitat. Daily metabolism was calculated from food consumption in pocket mice. Unlike smaller pocket mice, the hispid pocket mouse forms conspicuous dirt mounds about the entrances which resemble those of a small pocket gopher. The entrances to the subterranean tunnels, which are generally under partial protection of shrubs, are the same diameter as the head of the hispid pocket mouse. The hispid pocket mouse spends the day in shallow burrows underground and during the night gathers food above ground. In the Unitah Basin of Utah and Colorado, however, they are convergent structurally and appear to occupy similar habitats, but are not known to be sympatric.Some county occurrences indicated below may be too imprecise to map above.Ĭounty Breakdown: County Name (# occurrences):īarber (38) Barton (13) Butler (1) Chase (8) Chautauqua (2) Cheyenne (5) Clark (18) Cloud (36) Comanche (22) Cowley (10) Decatur (5) Doniphan (4) Edwards (5) Elk (1) Ellis (113) Ellsworth (2) Finney (51) Ford (30) Geary (13) Gove (11) Graham (2) Grant (2) Greeley (1) Greenwood (15) Hamilton (5) Harper (8) Harvey (1) Haskell (1) Jackson (1) Jewell (34) Kingman (3) Kiowa (63) Lane (9) Lincoln (6) Logan (62) Lyon (6) Marion (1) Marshall (10) McPherson (3) Meade (67) Mitchell (3) Montgomery (1) Morris (1) Morton (29) Neosho (2) Ness (3) Norton (7) Osborne (1) Pawnee (6) Phillips (38) Pratt (1) Rawlins (52) Reno (1) Republic (2) Rice (1) Riley (33) Rooks (13) Rush (19) Russell (81) Saline (14) Scott (13) Sedgwick (1) Seward (3) Sheridan (14) Sherman (37) Smith (3) Stanton (6) Stevens (5) Thomas (5) Trego (85) Wabaunsee (9) Wallace (7) Washington (2) Wichita (12) The two species are divergent in size and proportions and occupy different habitats in the Great Plains. No evidence was found that would suggest interspecific hybridization between P.
fasciatus callistus Osgood, 1900, from the intermountain basins of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. fasciatus fasciatus Wied, 1839, from the Great Plains, and P. Two races of the olive-backed pocket mouse are recognized- P.
Populations from the arid intermountain basins of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming were largest in size, had the longest tails, were the palest in color, and had the largest bullae. Size varied clinally in the Great Plains, with larger mice being found in the cooler, northern latitudes. fasciatus from the northern Great Plains, in areas with the highest amounts of precipitation, were the darkest colored and had proportionately the smallest auditory bullae.
flavescens from areas of potential sympatry were investigated. Geographic variation in Perognathus fasciatus Wied and the identities of specimens of P.
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