Long-tailed Mouse

The long-tailed mouse ranges from sea level to approximately 1,200 m. and seems to prefer habitats that offer high rainfall, such as wet forests. It is a habitat generalist which is resilient to environmental modifications. In a study of short-term responses of native rodents to various logging styles in old growth wet Eucalyptus forests, it was found that the long-tailed mouse was equally abundant across all forestry treatments and was positively correlated to reduced ground cover. Another study found that significantly greater numbers of long-tailed mouse were found in wet disturbed forests and that logging and harvesting did not effect the diversity of the local ecosystem. A conservational study conducted in 2012 was able to compare the historical range of the long-tailed mouse to its current range to determine if this helped predict the risk of extinction. Reduced geographic range size is often a strong predictor of species decline. It was shown that despite modern habitat loss, the long-tailed mouse is less threatened than would be expected from just the loss of its historical habitat ranges.

The long-tailed mouse is an opportunistic generalist omnivore whose diet is seasonal and varies with local availability. Using fecal analysis, it was found to consume a wide range of plant matter, such as grasses, grains, bamboo, fruits, ferns, and mosses. It was also found to consume fungi and insects of wide varieties.