The Yunnan striped field mouse, Apodemus ilex, is a new rodent species to Vietnam.
Photo: Wikipedia
Russian and Vietnamese researchers working at the Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Center of the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IEE RAS) have made another interesting discovery, expanding the mammal fauna of Indochina.
During an expedition in the mountainous region of northeastern Vietnam, the Yunnan striped field mouse (Apodemus ilex, O. Thomas, 1922) was discovered for the first time. Striped field mice of the genus Apodemus are typical and abundant representatives of the temperate regions, forests, and steppes of East Asia and Europe; they are also found in Russia. However, they do not penetrate tropical regions, and representatives of this genus have not previously been recorded in Vietnam or anywhere in Southeast Asia.
Genetic analysis demonstrated that the discovered population was not the product of an accidental introduction, meaning it was not brought in by humans, but rather represents an original genetic lineage, not closely related to the nearby Chinese populations.
"This discovery extends the known range of the species and genus south by more than 200 kilometers and provides further evidence of the unique composition of the mammal fauna of eastern Son La Province, where several new species of small mammals have recently been described," said Alexander Balakirev, PhD in Biology and a senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences.