Mount Kenya wood mouse

The Mount Kenya wood mouse (Hylomyscus endorobae) is a small rodent of the genus Hylomyscus that lives only in selected stretches of the wet montane forests of East Africa, in the Kenyan Rift mountains of southwestern Kenya and Tanzania, and only above about 2,000 metres in elevation. It was first described in 1910 under the name Epimys endorobae and was treated as a distinct species until it was folded into Hylomyscus denniae, a species then thought to be widespread across the tropical wet forests of the Afromontane region; at other times it was read as a small form of Praomys. In 2006 Hylomyscus and Praomys were confirmed as separate genus-level groups and H. endorobae was again recognised as its own species. It belongs to the H. denniae group alongside H. denniae and H. vulcanorum, three similar species that live in comparable wet montane forests but are isolated from one another, much as island endemics are. H. endorobae appears to be endemic to the Kenyan Rift mountains east of Lake Victoria, from Mount Elgon to Mount Kenya, and it can be told from H. denniae by its larger size, broader skull and larger molars.