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Writhedhornbill

Mount Kulal Spiny mouse

Taken at Chester zoo's Okapi house 17.2.08.

Mount Kulal Spiny mouse
Writhedhornbill, 20 Feb 2008
UngulateNerd92 likes this.
    • Writhedhornbill
      Taken at Chester zoo's Okapi house 17.2.08.
    • Tapir
      These are very sweet little animals!
    • TeaLovingDave
      Sadly no longer in the collection; as numbers have plummeted at both Plzen and Praha I fear this species will not be found in European collections all that much longer.
    • bongorob
      Also not a new species as first thought, but Percival's Spiny Mouse (Acomys percivali), described by Captain John Guy Dollman BA, FLS in 1911.
    • TeaLovingDave
      Considering that Percival's Spiny Mouse was all-but-unknown after it was discovered, an understandable omission - for all intents and purposes everything known about it has been discovered under the name of Mount Kulal Spiny Mouse.
    • Nanook
      To be honest the taxonomy of Spiny Mice appears to me to be very unreliable and confusing.
      I have personally kept two species and looked after another couple through work. The one in the photo looks remarkably like one species I kept years ago, then called the Egyptian if I remember correctly ?
      A bit like the Arabian Spiny Mouse, as it was called for many years, which is very similar to the Turkish at first glance.
      Can anyone list the correct current taxonomy of the spiny mouse genus?
      (TLD maybe ??)
    • threeple61
      I have a friend who worked with a number of these species and still keeps these. I don't think they will die out just yet, but as only 1.1 was imported initially inbreeding is bound to be an issue. Many zoos will not take the effort to keep and breed rodents...

      This species does look similar to A.cahirinus cahirinus, the black subspecies of the Egyptian, however there are differences (mostly size, but other more subtle ones) and i am confident that A.percivalii is not what you were keeping.
    • TeaLovingDave
      As far as I am aware, the following list from Wikipedia is correct; however I believe there has been precious little work done on the genus so I suspect that once someone has put the effort in, quite a bit of lumping and splitting may occur. The taxa in bold are held in public collections within Europe, though I suspect some of the others are in private hands.

      Western Saharan Spiny Mouse (Acomys airensis)
      Egyptian Spiny Mouse (Acomys cahirinus)
      Chudeau's Spiny Mouse (Acomys chudeaui)
      Asia Minor Spiny Mouse (Acomys cilicicus)
      Gray Spiny Mouse (Acomys cineraceus)
      Arabian Spiny Mouse (Acomys dimidiatus)
      Fiery Spiny Mouse (Acomys ignitus)
      Johan's Spiny Mouse (Acomys johannis)
      Kemp's Spiny Mouse (Acomys kempi)
      Louise's Spiny Mouse (Acomys louisae)
      Crete Spiny Mouse (Acomys minous)
      Mullah Spiny Mouse (Acomys mullah)
      Cyprus Spiny Mouse (Acomys nesiotes)
      Mount Kulal Spiny Mouse (Acomys percivali)
      Golden Spiny Mouse (Acomys russatus)
      Tibesti Spiny Mouse (Acomys seurati)
      South African Spiny Mouse (Acomys spinosissimus)

      Cape Spiny Mouse (Acomys subspinosus)
      Kenyan Spiny Mouse (Acomys wilsoni)

      In addition to these, there are two species lacking a common name, having recently been split from the South African Spiny Mouse - Acomys muzei and Acomys ngurui.
    • threeple61
      Kenyan Spiny Mouse (Acomys wilsoni) was kept by Plzen until recently I believe.
    • Nanook
      Brilliant Dave, thanks, very interesting.
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  • Category:
    Chester Zoo
    Uploaded By:
    Writhedhornbill
    Date:
    20 Feb 2008
    View Count:
    5,730
    Comment Count:
    18