Spinifex Hopping Mouse
Five Spiniflex Hopping Mice found a home at Australia Walkabout Wildlife Park, at Calga.
Spinifex Hopping Mice
These spinifex hopping mice Notomys alexis have joined a wide variety of native animals at the Park including grey kangaroos, several types of wallaby and emus. Spinifex hopping mice, weighing only 35 grams and measuring 100mm long are naturally found in the arid zone of central and Western Australia. They are light brown above, and grey-white below with a long tail up to 150mm long. The mice shelter in deep burrows to avoid the heat in the Spinifex covered sandflats they call home.
Spinifex Hopping Mice eat pretty much anything
It definitely pays not to be a fussy eater in the desert, where food is often hard to come by. These mice are omnivorous, and will eat a wide variety of seeds, roots, greens and invertebrates depending on what is available.
Spinifex hopping mice can respond quickly to boom times after rainfall, with a pregnancy lasting only thirty two days, and the ability to breed at any time of year. The litter averaging three to four young, are left in the nest when the mother forages for food. The mice are sexually mature at sixty days.
Whilst the Spinifex hopping mouse is considered at lower risk, five of the original ten species of hopping mice have become extinct in historical times.