National Museum of Natural Science

This is the smallest mouse species in Taiwan, weighing 5-7 grams. Its dorsal pelage is light brown and its belly is white. The tail is very long and used to wrap around the stalks of silvergrass to facilitate its movement. It builds a ball-shaped nest using silvergrass leaves and raises its offspring in it. When born, the pups weigh only around one gram. They reach sexual maturity in around 35 days. This species is distributed all over Taiwan from the plains to 3,000 meters above sea level. It mainly lives around one meter above ground and feeds on seeds.

Text/Chen Yan-Jun, Chen Mu-Xuan

Photo/Huang Xiao-Ting

Harvest mouse