It lives in the mountains of west-central Mexico, within a specific fragment of the Sierra Madre del Sur in the state of Michoacán, where it occupies middle- and high-altitude cloud forest and pine-oak forest. Its name honours an American naturalist who helped document the small mammal fauna of that mountainous region in the mid-20th century. Like other mice of its genus, it is a nocturnal forager that moves through the understorey searching for seeds, fruit and invertebrates, adjusting its diet to the seasonal availability of each resource. It is one of several endemic rodent species in the mountains of Michoacán whose small distribution makes it particularly sensitive to ongoing forest loss in that mountain range.
A small rodent with greyish-brown fur on the upperparts, a white belly, large eyes and well-developed ears. It differs from other Peromyscus species in the Sierra Madre del Sur by its restricted distribution in the mountains of Michoacán, as well as by cranial details that often require direct examination for reliable separation.
Small track, 1.3-1.8 cm, showing 4 front toes and 5 hind toes. Small, elongated droppings, 3-5 mm long, left scattered along runs through mountain understorey vegetation. It digs shallow burrows beneath roots, fallen logs or rocks, with the entrance semi-concealed among dense vegetation in the cloud forest and pine-oak forest where it lives.
Mountain cloud forest and pine-oak forest with a dense understorey, generally between 1800 and 2800 m altitude. Endemic to an area of the Sierra Madre del Sur in the state of Michoacán, west-central Mexico.
Omnivorous, feeding on seeds, fruit, fungi and invertebrates from the mountain understorey where it lives.
Solitary and nocturnally active, with a home range centered on the dense understorey of the mountain forest where it lives.
Its populations are considered to be in decline due to the ongoing loss of the cloud forest and pine-oak forest on which it depends, within a distribution already restricted to a specific area of Michoacán.
Deforestation and fragmentation of mountain forest caused by logging and agricultural expansion in the Sierra Madre del Sur of Michoacán.
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