Mammals of the WorldStriped Field Mouse
Apodemus agrarius
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Muridae
- Genus
- Apodemus
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Italy|Denmark|Germany|Czech Republic|Austria|Slovenia|Croatia|Bosnia and Herzegovina|Hungary|Slovakia|Serbia|Kosovo|Montenegro|Albania?|North Macedonia|Greece|Bulgaria|Turkey|Romania|Poland|Moldova|Ukraine|Belarus|Lithuania|Latvia|Estonia|Finland|Russia|Georgia|Kazakhstan|Kyrgyzstan|China|Mongolia|North Korea|South Korea|Taiwan|Myanmar|Japan
- Realm
- Palearctic|Indomalaya
About this species
- Size
- Body up to 12.6 cm; tail up to 9 cm
- Weight
- Up to 50 g
- Diet
- Plant matter, seeds, fruit, nuts and insects
- Habitat
- Woodland edge, grassland, marsh, pasture, gardens and towns
The striped field mouse is a greyish-brown mouse with a rusty cast and a bold black stripe running along the middle of its back. The underside is paler grey, while the eyes and ears are relatively small. Head-and-body length reaches about 12.6 centimetres, the tail up to 9 centimetres and weight up to 50 grams. The strong dorsal stripe is its clearest external field mark and readily separates it from the many plain-backed Apodemus mice sharing parts of its Eurasian range. (Wikipedia, striped field mouse account)
Striped field mice inhabit woodland edges, grasslands, marshes, pastures, gardens and urban areas; in winter they may enter haystacks, storehouses and dwellings. Mongolia forms part of the eastern portion of their disjunct Eurasian range. A short, shallow burrow contains the nest chamber. Activity is mainly nocturnal in summer but becomes more diurnal in winter. The varied diet includes green plant parts, roots, seeds, berries, nuts and insects. Three to five annual broods, averaging six young, can drive rapid seasonal population growth. (Wikipedia, striped field mouse account)
Description: Wildlife of Japan guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)