Distribution and Habitat
The distribution of Transandinomys talamancae extends from northwestern Costa Rica south and east to northern Venezuela and southwestern Ecuador, up to 1525 m (5000 ft) above sea level. It is a forest species and occurs in both evergreen and deciduous forest. Although its distribution broadly overlaps that of T. bolivaris, it is more widely distributed in South America because of its greater tolerance of dry forest habitats.
Transandinomys talamancae reaches the northern limit of its range in Costa Rica, but except for one record from the far northwest (in Guanacaste Province near the southern margin of Lake Nicaragua), it is known only from the southeastern third of the country. In contrast, T. bolivaris and H. alfaroi occur further north, into Honduras and Mexico respectively. It occurs throughout Panama at low elevations. Along the Pacific coast in Colombia and Ecuador, it is found on the coastal plain and the adjacent foothills of the Andes. The southernmost known record is in far southwestern Ecuador, but the species may well range into nearby Peru.
It also occurs throughout northern Colombia at low elevations and into western Venezuela west of Lake Maracaibo and at the foot of the western part of the Venezuelan Coastal Range east to Guatopo National Park. Hylaeamys megacephalus occurs further to the east in the eastern portion of the coastal range, separated by the coastal Eastern Caribbean Dry Zone. There is a record from the Orinoco Delta of northeastern Venezuela, well within the range of Hylaeamys megacephalus, but Musser and colleagues suggest that this is based on mislabeled specimens. The species has also been found on the narrow strip between the Llanos and the Andes (Cordillera Oriental and Cordillera de Mérida) in eastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela. The unforested Llanos separate these areas from Hylaeamys populations. Hylaeamys perenensis does, however, occur further south along the eastern foothills of the Cordillera Oriental in Colombia and it is possible that the two overlap in this area.
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