Mice and rats tend to be seen as dirty pests that live in and around our waste or homes. But did you know that our country has a cute native mouse that lives only in certain forests? If you love trees, you’ll also love the tree-mouse… the Mt. Banahaw Tree-mouse!

Unlike Mickey Mouse, the Mt. Banahaw Tree-mouse is much, much older, and exists in real life! It has orange-like fur, and super long whiskers that help it feel around the trees and vines at night.

It is one of 5 species found ONLY on Mt. Banahaw and nowhere else in the world. This is more local endemics on one mountain then there are in many countries.

This artwork and research is dedicated to the late Danilo Balete

Danilo Balete was involved in the discovery of more than half of the known small mammals in the Philippines ¹. Originally from Bicol, Balete introduced conservation measures on Mt. Isarog with the Haribon Foundation, and later worked on the Philippines mammal project of The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois in the United States ².

The species name beneficus is from the Latin for “beneficial”. It is in dedication to the benefactor who funded Balete’s high school and college education, and supported his interest in Philippine wildlife ³.

Danilo Balete passed away in 2017.

“It is extraordinary that so many new species of mammals remain to be discovered in the Philippines… In the past 10 years we’ve published formal descriptions of 10 other species, and other biologists have described five more. And we are nowhere close to the end of our discoveries. The Philippines may have the greatest concentration of unique species of animals of any country in the world.”

Danilo Balete, in an article in the ScienceDaily, “Seven new species of mammals discovered on Luzon, Philippines” (2011).

CLOUD RATS OF THE PHILIPPINES

• Mt. Isarog hairy-tailed rat (Batomys uragon)
• Large-toothed Batomys (Batomys dentatus)
• Ylin Island Cloud Rat (Crateromys paulus)
• Sierra Madre Tree-mouse (Musseromys anacuao)
• Mt. Pulag Tree-mouse (Musseromys beneficus)
• Mt. Banahaw tree-mouse (Musseromys gulantang)
• Mt. Amuyao Tree-mouse (Musseromys inopinatus)
• Brown-tailed dwarf cloud rat (Carpomys phaeurus)
• See all of them here!

Sources

1. J. Alvarez. 2017. “Danny Balete: One of the finest field biologists the Philippines has ever seen.” University of the Philippines Los Baños. (Last accessed May 7, 2019).
2. E. Gatumbato. 2017. “Danny B, a conservation hero.” The Visayan Daily Star.
3. Heaney, Balete et al. 2014. Three New Species of Musseromys (Muridae, Rodentia).