Animal Diversity Web

Di­ver­sity

Calomysci­dae is a small fam­ily of muroid ro­dents, with 8 species in 1 genus, Calomyscus. The mem­bers of this fam­ily are known as the mouse­like ham­sters. (Musser and Car­leton, 2005; Step­pan, et al., 2004)

Ge­o­graphic Range

Calomyscids range from west­ern Pak­istan through­out Afghanistan and Iran to south­west Syria, and north to south­ern Turk­menistan. (Nowak, 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• palearctic
  • native

Habi­tat

These ro­dents in­habit bar­ren, rocky hills in the dry parts of their range, and hill­sides cov­ered with ever­green oaks in the parts of their range that re­ceive mon­soons. They live at el­e­va­tions from 400 to 3500 me­ters. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• chaparral
• scrub forest

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Calomyscids are small and mouse­like in over­all ap­pear­ance, hence the com­mon name of the fam­ily. The length of the head and body ranges from 61 to 98 mm, the length of the tail ranges from 72 to 102 mm, and the weight ranges from 15 to 30 grams. There is no ap­par­ent sex­ual di­mor­phism. The tail is at least as long as the head and body com­bined, and the ears are large and promi­nent. The fur is fine and soft; the dor­sal sur­face is pink­ish, sandy or gray-brown and the paws and ven­ter are white. The top of the tail is dark and the un­der­side is white, it is cov­ered in thick fur and has a tuft at the tip. There are six mam­mae. Un­like ham­sters in the sub­fam­ily Criceti­nae, calomyscids lack cheek pouches and se­ba­ceous flank glands. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003; Vorontsov and Potapova, 1979)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

Re­pro­duc­tion

No in­for­ma­tion is avail­able on the mat­ing sys­tem of mouse­like ham­sters.

Calomyscids have a long breed­ing sea­son that be­gins in March and may last through De­cem­ber. In cap­tiv­ity, breed­ing may take place year round. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is about 21 days. Nor­mally fe­males have two lit­ters per year, with 3 to 7 young per lit­ter. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• fertilization
  • internal
• viviparous

Fe­male calomyscids build nests of grasses and other soft ma­te­ri­als in which to give birth. The young are al­tri­cial, and the eyes open about 13 days after birth. Also at about this time, the young grow their first coat of soft gray fur. Fe­males nurse their off­spring for about 17 days, and the young leave their mother 4 to 13 days later. Ju­ve­niles be­come sex­u­ally ma­ture at four months of age, but do not reach full adult size and color for an­other two to four months. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

No in­for­ma­tion is avail­able on the longevity of mouse­like ham­sters, al­though it is likely that they live only about 1 to 2 years in the wild.

Be­hav­ior

Calomyscids are ac­tive year round. In sum­mer they are strictly noc­tur­nal, but they are ac­tive at any time of the day or night in the fall and win­ter. They are good climbers, but never for­age far from a rock crevice where they can seek shel­ter quickly. Calomyscids are not highly so­cial; how­ever, they some­times nest in the same rock crevices or hud­dle to­gether for warmth. In cap­tiv­ity, in­di­vid­u­als can co­ex­ist peace­fully in the same cage. Cap­tive in­di­vid­u­als are re­ported to be in­quis­i­tive and eager to in­ves­ti­gate any dis­tur­bance that takes place near their en­clo­sure. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• diurnal
• nocturnal
• motile
• sedentary
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Like many other muroid ro­dents, calomyscids prob­a­bly have keen senses of smell and touch. Their large, promi­nant ears in­di­cate that they have a good sense of hear­ing as well. They are usu­ally silent, but they do some­times emit high-pitched chirps that may func­tion in com­mu­ni­ca­tion. (Tofts, 2003)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Seeds make up the main por­tion of the calomyscid diet, but flow­ers and leaves are eaten as well. In ad­di­tion, these ro­dents read­ily eat an­i­mal mat­ter, in­clud­ing in­sects and some­times car­rion. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • insectivore
  • scavenger
• herbivore
  • folivore
  • granivore
• omnivore

Pre­da­tion

There are no re­ports of pre­da­tion on calomyscids. How­ever, they are most likely eaten by preda­tors that con­sume other ro­dents, such as owls, snakes, and small car­niv­o­rous mam­mals. Calomyscids are ex­tremely agile and adept at es­cap­ing would-be preda­tors. When threat­ened, they dart into the near­est rock crevice for shel­ter. If caught in the open, they are ca­pa­ble of run­ning very fast and jump­ing over 30 cm into the air to evade pur­suers. (Nowak, 1999; Tofts, 2003)

• Known Predators

  • owls Strigiformes
  • snakes Serpentes
  • carnivorous mammals Carnivora

Ecosys­tem Roles

Mouse­like ham­sters are pri­mary and sec­ondary con­sumers and they are, in turn, con­sumed by other an­i­mals.

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Calomyscids have been im­ported into Eu­rope by zoos in re­cent years and are some­times kept as pets by ro­dent en­thu­si­asts. They have also been used for re­search in Russ­ian lab­o­ra­to­ries. (Tofts, 2003)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• research and education

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known neg­a­tive im­pacts of calomyscids on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Hot­son's mouse-like ham­ster (Calomyscus hot­soni) is listed as en­dan­gered by the IUCN. Three other species are listed as lower risk: Afghan mouse-like ham­ster (Calomyscus mys­tax), Tsolov's mouse-like ham­ster (Calomyscus tsolovi), and Urarstk mouse-like ham­ster (Calomyscus urarten­sis). Sight­ings of calomyscids in the wild are rare, and much re­search is still needed to fully un­der­stand the bi­ol­ogy of this fam­ily of ro­dents and to as­sess the sta­tus of their pop­u­la­tions. (IUCN, 2004; Tofts, 2003)

• IUCN Red List [Link]

  Not Evaluated

Other Com­ments

The ear­li­est known calomyscid fos­sils are from upper Pleiocene de­posits on the Isle of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. (Vorontsov and Potapova, 1979)

Con­trib­u­tors

Al­li­son Poor (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Ref­er­ences

Car­leton, M., G. Musser. 1984. Muroid ro­dents. Pp. 289-379 in S An­der­son, J Jones Jr., eds. Or­ders and Fam­i­lies of Re­cent Mam­mals of the World. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Cha­line, J., P. Mein, F. Pet­ter. 1977. Les grandes lignes d'une clas­si­fi­ca­tion évo­lu­tive des Muroidea. Mam­malia, 41: 245-252.

Eller­man, J. 1941. The Fam­i­lies and Gen­era of Liv­ing Ro­dents, vol. 2. Lon­don: British Mu­seum (Nat­ural His­tory).

Eller­man, J. 1940. The Fam­i­lies and Gen­era of Liv­ing Ro­dents, vol. I. Lon­don: British Mu­seum (Nat­ural His­tory).

IUCN, 2004. "IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 28, 2005 at www.​redlist.​org.

Jansa, S., M. Wek­sler. 2004. Phy­logeny of muroid ro­dents: re­la­tion­ships within and among major lin­eages as de­ter­mined by IRBP gene se­quences. Mol­e­c­u­lar Phy­lo­ge­net­ics and Evo­lu­tion, 31: 256-276.

Michaux, J., A. Reyes, F. Catze­flis. 2001. Evo­lu­tion­ary his­tory of the most spe­ciose mam­mals: mol­e­c­u­lar phy­logeny of Muroid ro­dents. Mol­e­c­u­lar Bi­ol­ogy and Evo­lu­tion, 18(11): 2017-2031.

Musser, G., M. Car­leton. 2005. Su­per­fam­ily Muroidea. D Wil­son, D Reeder, eds. Mam­mal Species of the World. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, v. 2. Bal­ti­more and Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Pavli­nov, I. 1980. Tax­o­nomic sta­tus of Calomyscus Thomas (Ro­den­tia, Criceti­dae) on the basis of the struc­ture of au­di­tory os­si­cles. Zo­o­logich­esky Zhur­nal, 59: 312-316.

Step­pan, S., R. Ad­kins, J. An­der­son. 2004. Phy­logeny and di­ver­gence-date es­ti­mates of rapid ra­di­a­tions in Muroid ro­dents based on mul­ti­ple nu­clear genes. Sys­tem­atic Bi­ol­ogy, 53(4): 533-553.

Tofts, R. 2003. "The Mouse­like Ham­ster (Calomyscus sp.)" (On-line). Ac­cessed March 29, 2005 at http://​www.​napak.​com/​mouselike_​hamster.​html.

Vorontsov, N., E. Potapova. 1979. Tax­on­omy of the genus Calomyscus (Criceti­dae). 2. Sta­tus of Calomyscus in the sys­tem of Criceti­nae. Zo­o­logich­esky Zhur­nal, 58: 1391-1397.