Natal Multimammate Mouse

style="background:#Template:Taxobox colour;"\|Natal Multimammate Mouse
Conservation status
	File:Status iucn3.1 LC.svg; Least Concern
style="background:#Template:Taxobox colour;" \| Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia;
Phylum:	Chordata;
Class:	Mammalia;
Order:	Rodentia;
Family:	Muridae;
Genus:	Mastomys;
Species:	M. natalensis;
Binomial name
	Mastomys natalensis; Smith, 1834
Synonyms
	Mastomys hildebrandtii (Peters, 1878); Myomys fumatus (Peters, 1878)

The Natal Multimammate Mouse (Mastomys natalensis) is a species of rodent in the Muridae family. It it found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, dry savanna, moist savanna, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, arable land, pastureland, rural gardens, urban areas, irrigated land, and seasonally flooded agricultural land.

In 1972, the Natal Multimammate Mouse was found to be the natural host of the deadly Lassa Fever virus.

References

Granjon, L., Lavrenchenko, L., Corti, M., Coetzee, N. & Rahman, E.A. 2004. Mastomys natalensis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 09 July 2007.
Musser, G. G. and M. D. Carleton. 2005. Superfamily Muroidea. Pp. 894-1531 in Mammal Species of the World a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. D. E. Wilson and D. M. Reeder eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.