Red climbing mouse

The red climbing mouse, Vernaya fulva, also known as Vernay's climbing mouse, is a small rodent in the family Muridae and the only living species of its genus, with no subspecies. It is named after Arthur Vernay, the explorer and antiques dealer who sponsored the expedition on which it was first discovered. It lives in mountainous terrain between 2,100 and 2,700 metres in southern China, in the provinces of Yunnan, Gansu, Sichuan and Shaanxi, and in northern Myanmar. Few specimens have been recorded, with a head and body length of 58 to 75 millimetres and a longer, almost naked dark brown tail of 12 to 13 centimetres. The soft, fluffy fur is brownish orange along the back and rich orange on the flanks, and the underparts are pale buff. Four extinct Vernaya species are known from Pleistocene deposits in southern China, and the capture sites suggest the animal inhabits dense low vegetation such as shrubbery and bracken.