The two are similar in appearance, but the hairy-eared mouse has a more intense colour and longer, more lax fur.

[2] This mouse is restricted to the cerrado ecoregion in Brazil, occurring in the states of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Rondônia and São Paulo, and the Federal District.

The home range averages 2,278 m2 (24,500 sq ft) and it is the second most abundant rodent in the cerrado after the hairy-tailed bolo mouse (Necromys lasiurus).

[1] The cerrado grassland in which it lives is increasingly being threatened by the expansion of industrial-scale farming, the burning of vegetation for charcoal and the development of dams to provide irrigation.

[3] Although populations of the mouse may be in slight decline, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of least concern because it believes the rate of population decline is not fast enough to justify placing it in a more threatened category.