Order Rodentia - Family Muridae Author Wilson, Don E. Author Reeder, DeeAnn text 2005 The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 2 1189 1531 book chapter 0-8018-8221-4 10.5281/zenodo.7316535 Mus (Nannomys) triton Thomas 1909 Mus (Nannomys) triton Thomas 1909 , Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 4: 548 . Type Locality: Kenya , Mt Elgon, Kirui, 6000 ft ( 1830 m ). Vernacular Names: Gray-bellied Mouse . Synonyms: Mus (Nannomys) birungensis (Lönnberg and Gyldenstolpe 1925) ; Mus (Nannomys) fors (Thomas 1909) ; Mus (Nannomys) imatongensis Setzer 1953 ; Mus (Nannomys) murilla (Thomas 1910) ; Mus (Nannomys) naivashae (Heller 1910) . Distribution: N and E Dem. Rep. Congo , Uganda ( Delany, 1975 ), Kenya ( Hollister, 1919 ), S Ethiopia (Lavrenchenko, 2000; Yalden et al., 1996 ), Tanzania ( Grimshaw et al., 1995 ; Stanley et al., 1998 ; Swynnerton and Hayman, 1951 ), Malawi ( Ansell, 1989 b ; Ansell and Dowsett, 1988 ), Tete Dist. of Mozambique ( de Graaff, 1997 h ; Smithers and Lobao Tello, 1976 ), Zambia ( Ansell, 1978 ), and C and NE Angola ( Crawford-Cabral, 1998 ). Conservation: IUCN – Lower Risk (lc). Discussion: Subgenus Nannomys . Listed as a questionable synonym of M. mahomet by Yalden et al. (1976:30) , who were unsure about the equivalence of mahomet and triton and merely noted that Ethiopian samples previously identified as triton were really mahomet . Lavrenchenko (2000) claimed that M . cf triton from the Ethiopian Harenna Forest, along with Ethiopian M. mahomet , belong to the same cytotaxonomic group, which excludes true M. triton ; Yalden et al. (1996) noted that M. triton and M. mahomet are sympatric in S Ethiopia but the former lives in forest, the latter in grassy forest clearings. The description of Mus birungensis ( Lonnberg and Gyldenstolpe, 1925 ) mirrors the range of variation of M. triton in samples (in AMNH ) we have examined from the Kivu region of E Dem. Rep. Congo . Considerable chromosomal polymorphism has been reported in samples identified as M. triton ( Robbins and Baker, 1978 ) . Altitudinal distribution on Ugandan slopes of Ruwenzori Mtns reviewed by Kerbis Peterhans et al. (1998) . Extant southern limit of species is Zambia and Tete Dist. of Mozambique (about 17 ES ), but it was present in KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa up to about 60,000 years ago ( Avery, 1991 ).