📸 PhotoPhoto: Pei-Jen Lee Shaner · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Taiwan Field Mouse
Apodemus semotus (Taiwan Field Mouse · Taiwan Field Mouse)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Its maximum weight of 31 g is about four Korean 500-won coins (about 7.7 g each) (Comparison). Its upper elevation of 3,700 m is nearly twice the height of Hallasan (1,947 m) (Comparison).
- 💡 In the mountains of Taiwan, it also appears in piles of fallen leaves along trail drainage ditches and inside mountain cabins (National Museum of Natural Science, Taiwan).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
The Taiwan field mouse is endemic to Taiwan and is the most common mouse at high elevations in Taiwan's mountains.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Its back fur is grayish black, while its belly fur is grayish white.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Although omnivorous, it feeds mainly on rhizomes and seeds. It prefers areas covered with thick leaf litter and also appears in leaf piles in mountain trail drainage ditches and inside mountain huts.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2016) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/1902/22424228
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • mammaldiversity.org — 1003024
- • iucnredlist.org — 22424228
- • wikidata.org — Q305458
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Apodemus semotus Wulin Shei-Pa Nationa Park 2014.jpg
- • nmns.edu.tw — Collection-E00324
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Anthony Caravaggi · CC0 1.0 (Congeneric silhouette — Apodemus sylvaticus)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.