Aethomys hindei (Thomas 1902)

[Epimys] hindei Thomas 1902, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 9: 218.

Type Locality: Kenya, Machakos.

Vernacular Names: Hinde's Aethomys.

Synonyms: Aethomys alghazal Wroughton 1907; Aethomys centralis Heller 1914; Aethomys helleri Hollister 1918; Aethomys medicatus Wroughton 1909; Aethomys norae Wroughton 1909 .

Distribution: N Cameroon, S Chad, Central African Republic, N and NE Dem. Rep. Congo, S Sudan, SW Ethiopia (Bekele and Schlitter, 1989; Yalden et al., 1996), Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania (no farther south than Muanza); southern limits unresolved. Range abstracted mostly from Davis (1975 b) and Denys and Tranier (1992).

Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Originally described as a species but later incorrectly arranged as a subspecies of A. kaiseri (e.g., Hollister, 1919; Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951), with which it is sympatric. Actual geographic range of A. hindei is unresolved because many series in museum collections and reported in the literature are misidentified as A. kaiseri . Davis (1975 b) recognized two morphologically distinctive populations as subspecies, one to the east of the Eastern Rift Valley ( hindei), and the other to the west ( medicatus). Recent preliminary comparisons of cranial and dental traits among geographic samples of A. hindei along with multivariate analyses prompted Denys and Tranier (1992) to suggest that A. hindei likely consists of several species or distinctive geographic populations of one species: hindei, which would be restricted to Kenya; alghazal from N Cameroon, Central African Republic, NE Dem. Rep. Congo, and N Uganda; and medicatus occurring in S Chad, Central African Republic, C Uganda, and SW Kenya. The complex requires critical revisionary study to determine significance of appreciable geographic variation in morphological traits.