Champion's tree mouse

Champion's tree mouse (Pogonomys championi) is a small rodent in the family Muridae that is found only in Papua New Guinea. It is known from the Telefomin and Tifalmin valleys in the upper Sepik River drainage of north-central New Guinea, at elevations of 1,400 to 2,300 metres, and it was described by Tim Flannery in 1988 from a type series of 28 specimens whose holotype came from Ofektaman in the Telefomin Valley. The mouse lives in tropical moist forest and in rural gardens, tolerating disturbed habitat. It is nocturnal, foraging in trees and bushes at night and spending the day in a burrow that has a long tunnel and a nest chamber, and several animals may share one burrow. Adults are about 112 to 136 millimetres long from head to rump with a tail of 149 to 170 millimetres and weigh roughly 40 to 66 grams. The fur is long, soft and sepia above and grayish white below, and the long, slender tail is prehensile at the tip and turns ivory with age. It is probably herbivorous. The IUCN Red List category recorded by GBIF is Data Deficient.