St Kilda house mouse

St Kilda house mouse
Conservation status
Extinct  (c. 1930)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Rodentia
Family:	Muridae
Subfamily:	Murinae
Genus:	Mus
Species:	Mus musculus
Trinomial name
Mus musculus muralis

The St Kilda house mouse (Mus musculus muralis) is an extinct subspecies of the house mouse found only on the islands of the St Kilda archipelago of northwest Scotland.^[1]

It is uncertain when they first arrived on the islands, but it is possible that they unwittingly were transported there during the Norse period. Isolated on the islands, the St Kilda house mouse diverged from relatives. It became larger than the mainland varieties, although it had a number of traits in common with a subspecies found on Mykines in the Faroe Islands, Mus musculus mykinessiensis.^[2]

When the last St Kildans were evacuated in 1930, the endemic house mouse became extinct very quickly,^[3] as it was associated strictly with human settlement. Some specimens exist in museums. The St Kilda field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus hirtensis) is still present.

References

1. Barrett-Hamilton, GEH (1899). "On the Species of the Genus Mus inhabiting St. Kilda". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London: 77–88.
2. The mammals on Mykines
3. People and nature on St Kilda

Sources

• Harrisson, T. H. and J. A. Moy-Thomas. 1933. "The Mice of St Kilda, with Especial Reference to Their Prospects of Extinction and Present Status". Journal of Animal Ecology, 2: 109-115.
• Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. "Superfamily Muroidea". Pp. 894-1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

External links

• St. Kilda Mice and Wrens