Awash multimammate mouse

The Awash multimammate mouse, also called the Awash mastomys (Mastomys awashensis), is a species of rodent in the family Muridae found only in Ethiopia. Leonid Lavrenchenko, Likhnova and Baskevich described it in 1998. Phylogenetically it is the sister taxon of the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), a species found almost everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa and considered a serious agricultural pest. Its natural habitats are dry savanna and arable land. It has been studied in croplands of the Degua Tembien district in Tigray, where it commonly occurs in crop fields and in domestic and peri-domestic habitats between about 1,500 and 2,700 metres. It is nocturnal and burrowing, prefers crop fields with vertisols, is threatened by habitat loss and is also considered a pest of grain crops. Night-active raptors such as barn owls probably take it as part of their rodent diet.