Yellow-necked mouse
Yellow-necked mouse ( Apodemus flavicollis )
The yellow-necked mouse ( Apodemus flavicollis ) is a mammal of the family of long-tailed mice ( Muridae ). This medium sized long-tailed mouse colonized large parts of the Western Palearctic and inhabited forests and other wooded habitats. The yellow-necked mouse is the most common mammal species in Europe and is unthreatened, according to IUCN.
Features
The yellow-necked mouse is one of the medium-sized species of the genus Apodemus, the ears are relatively large, the eyes large and prominent. The head-body length is 88-130 mm, tail length 90-135 mm, the length of the hind foot 22-27 mm and the ear length of 15-20 mm. The animals weighing 16-56 g, 26-36 g The coat is usually oberseits hot red - or yellow-brown. The underside is almost pure white, the demarcation for top coloring is very clear. A breast drawing is mostly trained in Europe as a continuous yellowish brown collar, only in southern Europe, Asia Minor and the Caucasus, it is present only as a longitudinally oval spot. The hind feet are hairy on the upper side white.
Distribution and habitat
The range of the yellow-necked mouse includes large parts of the Western Palearctic. In west-east direction of the area of Wales, England and Spain's northwest to the southern Urals is sufficient, in the southeast on Turkey to northern Iran. Although the south of Britain is populated, lacks the kind in the Atlantic near west of continental Europe. In a north-south direction, the distribution of the middle Sweden and southern Finland to the southern tip of Italy, to the south of Greece and further east to Israel and northern Iran extends.
Yellow-necked mice are largely tied to the forest than optimal habitats are older, dominated by beech and oak deciduous forests. In addition, tree -rich hedges and gardens are inhabited. In the fall of yellow-necked mice are often used in buildings. The altitudinal distribution ranges from sea level to about 2100 m in the Alps, even higher in the Caucasus.
Way of life
Yellow-necked mice are nocturnal and climb very well, partly down to the crown area of trees. The nests are usually located in burrows between tree roots or rocks, rare in woodpiles or in squirrel Kobeln and nesting boxes to 8 m in height. The burrows are usually taken up by moles or voles, rare dug themselves. The yellow-necked mouse is an omnivore 's diet consists of seeds and fruits such as acorns, beechnuts and hazelnuts, buds, insects and other invertebrates, and occasionally small vertebrates and bird eggs are eaten. The proportion of animal food is approximately 10 %. For winter food depots are created with acorns or beechnuts. The propagation takes place in the north of the site from January to October and is, moreover, largely of the wood mouse.
The yellow-necked mouse shows significant, but not cyclical inventory fluctuations depending on the food supply. In forests of Eastern Europe can rise to over 100 individuals / ha, the population density in mast years.
Inventory and risk
In the UK, the populated area decreased significantly during the historical period through the conversion of forests to farmland. However, the yellow-necked mouse has a total of of the most common mammal species in Europe, the stock seems to be largely stable. The species is not endangered worldwide, according to IUCN.