Atlas der Säugetiere Nordrhein-Westfalens

Brandmaus

207 entries

Striped field mouse

Rote Liste NRW: R durch extreme Seltenheit (potentiell) gefährdet

  entry

Apodemus agrarius

The striped Field Mouse is a typical mouse with large eyes and ears and a long tail, which is a little bit shorter than its head-and-body length. Its most distinctive characteristic is a dark dorsal strip on its back, which starts between the ears and extends to the root of the tail. The area of distribution of this true mouse extends from the East all the way into Mongolia and China. The East is also the original centre of distribution of the species. The colonization of Western Europe took place only 7000 years before present. Through North-Rhine-Westphalia runs a part of its western distributional edge; only eastern NRW (Lippe County, Höxter County and parts of Paderborn County) are currently settled. Preferable habitats are in the riparian zones of running and standing waters. Towards autumn and winter, the Striped Field Mouse also frequently enters buildings. Striped Filed Mice predominantly feed on a carnivorous diet (worms, insects, spiders) aside from seeds containing oil and fruits.
The Striped Field Mouse can often hardly be detected in its area of distribution because its population density can be very low. In some years however, for so-far unknown reasons, mass propagation can occur so that the species suddenly occurs in increased numbers in regions where it was not observed for a long time. Recently in 2009, there was a strong increase (own observations).
The Striped Field Mouse is predominantly diurnal and crepuscular, so that observations of the species in its area of occurrence are quite possible.

Author

Holger Meinig

Citation

Meinig H (2025): Brandmaus (Apodemus_agrarius).In: AG Säugetierkunde NRW — Online-Atlas of the mammals of North Rhine-Westphalia. Downloaded from saeugeratlas-nrw.lwl.org on 2025/04/01