The fur on its back is bristling with stiff, flattened hairs that resemble tiny spines—a texture shared with other spiny pocket mice in its genus that distinguishes Nelson's Spiny Pocket Mouse to the touch from any other rodent of its size. It lives in the humid mountain forests of a very specific strip of south-eastern Mexico and Guatemala, foraging on the understorey floor for fallen seeds. Its name honours the American naturalist who documented much of the small mammal fauna in the region during the early twentieth century. It is one of many endemic Mesoamerican mountain rodents whose survival depends entirely on preserving the region's original humid forest.
A small-to-medium-sized rodent with bristly, spiny-looking, flattened hairs on its back, paler underparts, a long tail, and somewhat elongated hind feet. It is distinguished from other rodents in the region by the spiny texture of its dorsal fur, a trait shared with other species in its genus but absent in most local forest rodents.
Small track, 1.5-2 cm, showing 4 front and 5 hind toes. Small, elongated droppings, 5-7 mm, left scattered along understorey runs. It digs shallow burrows beneath roots or fallen logs, with the entrance partially hidden among leaf litter, and leaves small accumulations of gnawed seed husks beside rocks or logs used as regular feeding stations.
Mid-elevation humid mountain forest with dense understorey, generally between 1000 and 2500 m altitude. Distributed across a strip of south-eastern Mexico and the Guatemalan highlands.
Granivorous, feeding mainly on fallen seeds, supplemented by fruit and the occasional forest-floor invertebrate.
Solitary and nocturnal, with a home range centred on its system of shallow understorey burrows.
Populations are considered to be in decline due to the ongoing loss of the humid mountain forest on which Nelson's Spiny Pocket Mouse depends, leaving its known range increasingly fragmented.
Deforestation and fragmentation of humid mountain forest caused by agricultural and livestock expansion in south-eastern Mexico and Guatemala.
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