Southern Tree Mouse

About this species

Size

Head and body 8.5cm; tail 11.7cm

Weight

21.1g

Habitat

High-mountain cloud forest at 2,000–2,200m

Range

Known from Ta Xua Nature Reserve, Son La Province, northern Vietnam

The southern tree mouse is a blind tree mouse described in 2024 from a single adult female. The holotype weighed 21.1 g, with an 8.5 cm head-and-body length and an 11.7 cm tail. It has dark-grey upperparts, a greyish underside, prominent nearly bare ears, vestigial eyes and exceptionally long white whiskers. The tail exceeds the body and develops long dark-grey hair toward its tip, while the hind feet are slender and elongated (Balakirev et al. 2024).

The only documented animal was collected in November 2023 at 2,000–2,200 m in Ta Xua Nature Reserve, Son La Province, four kilometres east of Y Xoa. The genus is rarely observed in nature and is associated with high-mountain cloud forests. Dental, skull and genetic characters distinguish this mouse from the other Vietnamese blind tree mouse, T. chapensis. With evidence limited to the type locality and one specimen, its wider distribution and natural history remain unknown (Balakirev et al. 2024).

Description: Wildlife of Vietnam guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com)