Western Saharan spiny mouse

The Western Saharan spiny mouse, Acomys airensis, is a small insectivorous rodent in the family Muridae found in arid regions of western Africa. It has large ears, small eyes and a sharp snout, tawny fur on the back with white underparts that are separated cleanly from the flanks, and a line of spiny hairs on the rear of the back that gives the group its name. It occurs north of the Niger River and has been recorded with certainty in southern Mauritania, Mali and Niger. It lives in the Sahel savanna zone, in rocky areas but also in gardens and inside buildings, up to about 1000 metres above sea level. Terrestrial and mainly nocturnal, it probably rests in rock cracks rather than burrowing, and barn owls appear to be major predators. Like other members of its genus it is omnivorous but mainly insectivorous. It was once treated as the same species as the Cairo spiny mouse, but their chromosome numbers differ.