The burrows consist of a network of tunnels and chambers for sleeping and food storage. They make these underground nests of dried grasses and other plants. Burrows also offer protection from wind, rain, and predators as well as a space for Baja pocket mice to rear young. Unlike other pocket mice, Baja pocket mice can live on stony gravelly soils as well as disturbed and over-grazed areas.īaja pocket mice build complex burrows under rocks or shrubs, where daily temperatures are more stable and humidity is higher compared to the surface. Within these areas, Baja pocket mice prefer a widespread distribution in coarse soil, gravel, and small rocks near bushes and cacti. The elevational range at which this species lives is 270 to 720 m. A subspecies, Monserrate Island pocket mouse Chaetodipus rudinoris fornicatus lives on Montserrat Island in the Gulf of California, dwelling in xeric scrubland. Baja pocket mice inhabit shrublands in arid areas on the plains of the Baja California peninsula, but rocky hillsides of the Sierra de San Pedro Martir. Depending on geographic location, Baja pocket mice prefer slightly different habitats. They are mostly found in flat terrain of deserts but can also be found within washes or rocky hillsides. ( Riddle, et al., 2000 Stapp and Polis, 2003 Tremor, 2017)īaja pocket mice are nocturnal and terrestrial. All populations east of the Colorado river and Sea of Cortez were retained as Bailey’s pocket mice all populations to the west were separately defined as Baja pocket mice. (2000) used mtDNA data to examine phylogenetic relationships within Bailey’s pocket mice ( Chaetodipus baileyi) and has split the species at the Colorado river and Sea of Cortez. The Baja pocket mouse can also be found on several islands in the Gulf of California.
Baja pocket mice ( Chaetodipus rudinoris ) are found west of the Colorado river, in southwestern California and south through the tip of Baja California, Mexico.