#fat mouse

We’re starting off the week with the Dainty Fat Mouse (Steatomys cuppedius), who is named this way due to being relatively small for their genus, with a body length of only around 8 cm, with their tail adding another 5 cm [1].

Note that the image above is not actually of them, but rather of the Tiny Fat Mouse (S. parvus), as there do not appear to exist any images of them. Some researchers have argued that the Dainty Fat Mouse is just a subspecies of the Tiny Fat Mouse, and so it seemed an apt substitute [1]. When originally described in 1920, the authors of the paper differentiated between the two by the Dainty Fat Mouse having a longer and almost entirely white tail [2], so I suppose you can imagine what that may look like.

They’ve been most commonly found in Senegal, though there have been observations of them as far East as Nigeria and Niger, and thus it is probable that they are also found in between those areas in Burkina Faso and Mali. As they are widely distributed, including in some protected areas, they are listed under “Least Concern” by the IUCN. They are hunted sometimes, but this does not pose a major threat to overall populations [3]. For a while there were records of them in South East Ghana, but these turned out to be Uranomys ruddi instead [1].

In Senegal, they’re found in sandy areas near gardens and the coast. They are nocturnal and considering individuals are frequently caught in clusters, it is likely that they form colonies. While there isn’t any information on their diet, they do gather up fat in the wet season so that they can survive while inactive during the dry season. They are also a major prey item of Barn Owls (Tyto alba) in some areas in Senegal, their remains making up around 30% of their droppings [1].