Cairo spiny mouse

The Cairo spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus), also known as the common spiny mouse, Egyptian spiny mouse, or Arabian spiny mouse, is a nocturnal species of rodent in the family Muridae. It is found in Africa north of the Sahara, where its natural habitats are rocky areas and hot deserts. It is omnivorous and feeds on seeds, desert plants, snails, and insects. It is a gregarious animal and lives in small family groups.

Cairo spiny mouse

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Muridae
Genus: Acomys
Species:
A. cahirinus
Binomial name
Acomys cahirinus
(É. Geoffroy, 1803)[2]
Synonyms

Acomys chudeaui

Description

The Cairo spiny mouse grows to a head and body length of about 3.75 to 5 in (95 to 127 mm) with a tail of much the same length. Adults weigh between 1.5 and 3 oz (43 and 85 g). The colour of the Cairo spiny mouse is sandy-brown or greyish-brown above and whitish beneath. A line of spine-like bristles run along the ridge of the back. The snout is slender and pointed, the eyes are large, the ears are large and slightly pointed and the tail is devoid of hairs.[3]

The spiny mouse is known to have relatively weak skin,[4] compared to a Mus musculus, and tail autotomy.[5]

Distribution and habitat

The Cairo spiny mouse is native to northern Africa with its range extending from Mauritania, Morocco, and Algeria in the west to Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Egypt in the east at altitudes up to about 1,500 m (4,900 ft). It lives in dry stony habitats with sparse vegetation and is often found near human dwellings. It is common around cliffs and canyons and in gravelly plains with shrubby vegetation. It is not usually found in sandy habitats, but may be present among date palms.[1][6]

Behaviour
Captive specimens at Birmingham Nature Centre

Cairo spiny mice are social animals and live in a group with a dominant male. Breeding mostly takes place in the rainy season, between September and April, when availability of food is greater.[6] The gestation period is five to six weeks, which is long for a mouse, and the young are well-developed when they are born. At this time, they are already covered with short fur and their eyes are open, and they soon start exploring their surroundings. The adults in the group cooperate in caring for the young, with lactating females feeding any of the group offspring.[6] Females may become pregnant again immediately after giving birth, and have three or four litters of up to five young in a year. The juveniles mature at two to three months of age.[6][7]

Cairo spiny mice live in burrows or rock crevices and are mostly terrestrial, but they can also clamber about in low bushes. They are nocturnal and omnivorous, eating anything edible they can find. Their diet includes seeds, nuts, fruit, green leaves, insects, spiders, molluscs, and carrion. When they live in the vicinity of humans, they consume crops, grain, and stored food.[6] They sometimes enter houses, especially in winter, and dislike cold weather.[3]

The fruit of Ochradenus baccatus (= Reseda baccata) has pleasant tasting flesh, but distasteful seeds. The Cairo desert mouse consumes the fruits, but spits the seeds out intact and thus acts as an efficient seed dispersal agent for this plant.[8]

The Cairo spiny mouse is a host of the Acanthocephalan intestinal parasite Moniliformis acomysi.[9]

Status

The Cairo spiny mouse has a wide distribution and occupies diverse habitats. It is common and the population size large, so the IUCN, in its Red List of Threatened Species, lists it as being of "Least Concern".[1]

Research interest

The spiny mouse is used for research in diabetes, development, regeneration, and menstruation.[10]

A recent study,[11] still under peer review at the time of writing,[12] indicates that this species could become a candidate animal model for the human menstrual cycle. It exhibits a 9-day cycle, and is the first rodent found to have such a cycle. Gene sequencing is currently underway [13] to investigate this, and other unique physiological traits displayed by this species.

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References
  1. Dieterlen, F.; Schlitter, D. & Amori, G. (2008). "Acomys cahirinus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2009.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Etienne (1803). Catalogue des Mammiferes du Museum National d'historie naturelle. p. 195.
  3. Konig, Claus (1973). Mammals. Collins & Co. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-00-212080-7.
  4. Seifert, Ashley; Kiama, Stephen; Seifert, Megan; Goheen, Jacob; Palmer, Todd; Maden, Malcolm (2012). "Skin shedding and tissue regeneration in African spiny mice (Acomys)". Nature. 489 (7417): 561–5. Bibcode:2012Natur.489..561S. doi:10.1038/nature11499. PMC 3480082. PMID 23018966.
  5. Shargal, Eyal; Rath-Wolfson, Lea; Kronfeld, Noga; Dayan, Tamar (1999). "Ecological an dhistological aspects of tail loss in spiny mice (Rodentia: Muridae, Acomys) with a review on its occurrence in rodents". Journal of Zoology. 249 (2): 187–193. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999.tb00757.x.
  6. Regula, Clara (2012). "Acomys cahirinus: Cairo spiny mouse". Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  7. "Egyptian spiny mouse, Cairo spiny mouse". World Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 28 August 2013.
  8. Samuni-Blank, M; Izhaki, I; Dearing, MD; Gerchman, Y; Trabelcy, B; Lotan, A; Karasov, WH; Arad, Z (2012). "Intraspecific directed deterrence by the mustard oil bomb in a desert plant". Current Biology. 22 (13): 1218–1220. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2012.04.051. PMID 22704992.
  9. Ward, Helen L.; Nelson, Diane R. (1967). "Acanthocephala of the Genus Moniliformis from Rodents of Egypt with the Description of a New Species from the Egyptian Spiny Mouse (Acomys cahirinus)". The Journal of Parasitology. 53 (1): 150–156. doi:10.2307/3276638. JSTOR 3276638. PMID 6066757.
  10. Pinheiro, G; Prata, DF; Araujo, IM; Tiscornia, G (2018). "The African spiny mouse (Acomys spp.) as an emerging model for development and regeneration". Lab Animal. 52 (6): 565–576. doi:10.1177/0023677218769921. PMID 29699452.
  11. Nowogrodzki, Anna (2016). "First rodent found with a human-like menstrual cycle". Nature News. doi:10.1038/nature.2016.20072.
  12. Bellofiore, N.; Ellery, S. J.; Mamrot, J.; Walker, D. W.; Temple-Smith, P.; Dickinson, H. (3 June 2016). "First evidence of a menstruating rodent: the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus)". bioRxiv 10.1101/056895.
  13. Mamrot, Jared; Legaie, Roxane; Ellery, Stacey J.; Wilson, Trevor; Gardner, David; Walker, David W.; Temple-Smith, Peter; Papenfuss, Anthony T.; Dickinson, Hayley (19 September 2016). "De novo transcriptome assembly for the spiny mouse (Acomys cahirinus)". bioRxiv 10.1101/076067.
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