Ann Marie González Piñeiro

April 20, 2015

RISE Creative Writting Competition

A Mouse Love Story

Hello, my name is Jesyka Meléndez. I’m a graduate student at UC Berkeley and

today I’m going to tell you the love story about the mice that I work with in my behavioral

ecology research.

Once upon a time there was a daddy mouse who went all over the forest mating with

every mommy mice and leaving baby mice wherever he went. This particular daddy mouse

was known as the promiscuous brush mouse. It was his nature to mate with different

mommy mice and have several litters. Eventually, his litters would grow up to be just as

promiscuous as he. One day, daddy mouse went to a secluded part in the forest and saw a

smaller and cuter mommy mouse. He was astonished and asked himself who was this

beauty he had just seen. This beautiful little mouse was a monogamous California mouse.

She was raised in a family where her mommy mouse and her daddy mouse mated for life. In

this particular family, the daddy mouse takes care of the baby mice and teaches them to

find a life mate.

After spending time looking at the beautiful mommy mouse, the daddy mouse

decided he needed to mate with her. He felt attracted to her because of the major

histocompatibility complex, which was different to his and would result in diverse offspring.

That’s when he started the marvelous plan to make her fall in love with him. It was a

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difficult task because she wanted to mate for life, but he only wanted to spread his genes

one more time. He began this conquest by releasing his powerful pheromones all over the

place. His secret weapon is a chemical that triggers a social response in members of the

same species. Because of this reason, the pheromones that were secreted got to the mommy

mouse and altered her response towards him. She fell madly in love with this daddy mouse

and could not resist him.

The little monogamous mommy mouse and the promiscuous daddy mouse mated and

gave life to little monogamous baby mice. These baby mice ended up being like their

mommy, monogamous, because if they were to be promiscuous they would have to compete

with their daddy mouse in the mating process and that would not end well. After the birth of

these babies, there was a very big problem. Neither mommy mouse nor daddy mouse knew

how to raise these mice. They would fight every day because of the responsibilities and the

tendencies of their nature. Daddy mouse was known for fleeing the scene right after the

litter was born and mommy mouse had grown up watching her dad take care of the baby

mice.

As a result to all this controversy, the mommy mouse decided to take control of the

situation. She did this by teaching her monogamous babies everything her parents had

taught her. Because of this, the babies grew up raised with monogamous values and set off

to create their own love story.

THE END.

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The story I just told you guys represents the mating process between the

monogamous California mouse and the promiscuous brush mouse and the conflicts that

they could endure. I hope that with this short love story you could understand the mating

structures in these mice and the role of the major histocompatibility complex.

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