Chinese dormouse facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Chinese dormouse |
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Chaetocauda
Wang, 1985
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| Chaetocauda sichuanensis |
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The Chinese dormouse or Sichuan dormouse (Chaetocauda sichuanensis) is a species of dormouse that lives in subalpine mixed forests in northern Sichuan, China.
Only two female specimens have even been caught. These were both caught in the Wanglang Natural Reserve and was first described by Wang Youzhi in 1985. Corbet and Hill (1991, 1992) relisted it under a new genus as Chaetocauda sichuanensis. It is the only member of the genus Chaetocauda.
The two specimens had the following measurements:
- Specimen 1:
- head and body length: 90 millimetres (3.5 in)
- tail length: 92 millimetres (3.6 in)
- weight: 24.5 grams (0.86 oz)
- Specimen 2:
- head and body length: 91 millimetres (3.6 in)
- tail length: 102 millimetres (4.0 in)
- weight: 36 grams (1.3 oz)
Cjaetocauda is nocturnal (it is awake at night) and arboreal (lives in trees). It nests in trees about 3 metres (9.8 ft) above the ground and the two specimens were found at an altitude of more than 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) above sea level. It is classified as endangered by the IUCN as of the 2004 Red List due to its small isolated habitat.
- *Corbet, G.B. & Hill, J.E. 1991. A world list of mammalian species, 3rd ed. Natural History Museum Publications & Oxford University Press, London and Oxford.: v-viii, 1-243.
- Wang, Youzhi. 1985. A new genus and species of Gliridae. Acta Theriologica Sinica, 5 (1985), pp. 67-75.
- An illustration of The Chinese Dormouse at the Animal Diversity Web
