Northern birch mouse

Sicista betulina

The birch mouse or Streifenhüpfmaus ( Sicista betulina ) is the best known species of birch mice, which are among the jumping mice ( Dipodidae ).

Exterior Features

The tiny birch mouse is even smaller than the dwarf mouse. It reaches a head-body length of 50 to 72 mm, a tail length of 140 to 150 % of head -body length and weight 5-11 g The top of the body is yellow -gray with blackish dashes and a dorsal stripe ( dark strip ), the underside is light gray.

Dissemination

The birch mouse preferred moist to boggy, overlap rich terrain. Except in bogs and wet meadows she lives in forests. In the mountains they are found up to 2000 m altitude. It occurs in Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe. In Asia, they reached the Yenisei and the Baikal lake area. In Germany she finds herself in the Bavarian Forest in flat wooded areas in Schleswig -Holstein. The species was discovered relatively late. For Austria it is occupied for part of the Alpine region since 1967. 2010 discovered it in Southern Burgenland in market Allhau ( 349 m above sea level). The first evidence of the three - country region Šumava dated from the year 1950.

The similar steppe birch mouse ( Sicista subtilis ), however, occurs as steppe dwellers in the area between Hungary and southern Russia.

Behavior

Active are birch mice from early May to October mainly at dusk and at night time. The mouse lives in underground tunnels that they dig themselves. On the ground, it moves away hopping, in the branches it is a skilled climber, where she uses the long tail as a climbing aid. Her voice is a high, low, whistling beeping. Mating takes place in the months of May / June. After 25 days gestation period come summer nest, which is located in the Genist, grass or moss, up to six cubs are born blind, which develop only slowly compared to other mice. The nestlings are suckled for five weeks. The birch mouse holds an eight-month hibernation in a self-dug hole in the ground.

Food

Birch forest mice eat grass seeds, berries and fruit, but insects and larvae.