General: Long-tailed Pocket Mouse (Chaetodipus formosus) are small, buffy-gray mice with small ears and a long, tufted tail, but no other marks. The head and body are about 3-inches long, and the tail is 4-5 inches long. They have external, fur-lined cheek pouches; run on all four feet; and have a crest of long hairs on the top of the tail.

Like Kangaroo Rats, Pocket Mice have a pocket, or rather two pockets, for carrying things. Pocket Mice have external, fur-lined cheek pouches that they use to carry seeds and other food items into their burrow for storage. Most animals carry food in their mouth (e.g., dogs and cats) or in their cheeks (squirrels), but Pocket Mice actually have an extra pouch on the outside of their cheeks.

Pocket Mice are quite common in the deserts and lower mountains around Las Vegas from the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) to the Upper Sonoran (Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) Life Zone.