Macedonian mouse
Mus macedonicus
junipertrail · Akçadağ/Malatya
Key facts in one look
- Status in Georgia
- Native, stable population
- Size
- Head and body 6.5–9.8 cm, 11–30 g
- Habitat
- Steppes, orchards, fields, reed beds
- Family
- Muridae
- Conservation
- LC / LC
The Macedonian mouse (Mus macedonicus) looks very much like the house mouse, but it is never trapped inside houses. It ranges from the Balkans and Anatolia to Iran, avoids forest and lives in open country: steppes, orchards, fields and reed beds. In Georgia it has been found at more than 70 places, from Tbilisi and Mukhrani to Lagodekhi, Dedoplistskaro and Marneuli. It is not threatened in Georgia, and its population is stable. If you see a mouse far from houses, on a steppe or in an orchard, it may well be a Macedonian mouse.
Identification
Macedonian mouse: how to identify it
A medium-sized mouse with a greyish-brown back and a white or greyish-white belly. It looks very much like the house mouse. The tail is slightly shorter than the head and body.
Head and body 6.5–9.8 cm, tail 5.6–8.2 cm, weight 11–30 g. Females are heavier than males.
The back ranges from pale to dark greyish brown, sometimes with a reddish tinge. A clear line runs along the flanks between the colour of the back and the belly. The tail is dark brown above and paler below.
The house mouse's tail is about as long as its head and body, while the Macedonian mouse's is about 81% of it. Both have notched upper incisors. The two cannot always be told apart by sight, so the place says a lot: a mouse found inside a house will be a house mouse.
Colour
Swatches are illustrative. Do not identify a species by colour alone.
Often confused with
It is a mouse of open country and avoids forest. It lives on sandy ground, in reed beds along lakes and rivers, in orchards, fields, gardens and scrub, up to 1500 m. It has never been trapped inside houses. In Georgia it is widespread in the east and in Shida Kartli: it has been found in Tbilisi, at Lake Lisi, in Mukhrani, Gori and Kareli, in Lagodekhi, Ikalto and Gurjaani, in Dedoplistskaro and Vashlovani, at Davit Gareji, Gardabani, Marneuli and Bolnisi.
It is a ground-dwelling, nocturnal mouse. It breeds in spring and summer. In the Balkans a female carries 4–10 embryos, 6–7 on average, and in Anatolia 5–9. Its body changes with day length: on short days it gains weight and copes better with cold, on long days it eats less and copes better with heat.
Related guides
Continue with related pages
Above all by where it lives. The Macedonian mouse never enters houses and lives in open country, orchards and fields. Its tail is slightly shorter than its head and body, about 81%, while the house mouse's equals its body length. A clear line along the flanks separates the colour of its back and belly. The two species can only be told apart for certain in the hand or in the laboratory.
In eastern and central Georgia, at more than 70 places. It has been found in Tbilisi, Mukhrani, Gori and Kareli, Lagodekhi, Gurjaani, Dedoplistskaro and Vashlovani, Gardabani, Marneuli and Bolnisi. It avoids forest and favours orchards, fields, scrub and reed beds.
It does not enter houses, so it does not spoil stored food as the house mouse does. It lives in fields and orchards and eats seeds, but there is no data on damage it does to crops.
No, it does not attack. Still, wild rodents can pass on diseases through bites, scratches, urine, droppings and fleas. So do not touch a mouse with bare hands.
References
What this profile is based on
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
Prepared by the Reptiles.ge editorial team from the sources listed here.
