News Animals

The world’s highest-dwelling mammal isn’t the only rodent at extreme elevation

The finding could change how scientists think about life in harsh environments

mouse at high altitude

This Andean altiplano mouse, Abrothrix andina, is a species that scientists now know lives at extreme elevations, above 5,800 meters.

Jay Storz

By Meghan Rosen

On a series of expeditions along the spine of the Andes Mountains, a team of high-climbing researchers has found mammalian life scampering through some of Earth’s harshest environments.

From 2020 to 2022, evolutionary biologist Jay Storz and colleagues trekked to the peaks of 21 volcanoes in South America.