house mice
DESCRIPTION
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The house mouse belongs to Genus: Mus, Species: musculus . Its Binomial name is Mus musculus.
They received their name “house mouse” because they tend to live in your home, but do they as pets?
Yes. These creatures are indeed domesticated to become pets.
Not to mention, they are used as test subjects as well since mice are much like
humans in how their bodies and minds work.
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ECOLOGY As illustrated in the previous section, mice are more of a prey although
they are omnivorous.
Where do mice live? Mice are hardy creatures that are found in
nearly every country and type of terrain. They can live in forests, grasslands and manmade structures easily. Mice typically make a burrow underground if they live out in the wild. Their burrow helps protect them from predators. Their natural predators are cats, birds, wild dogs and foxes.
What do mice eat? If you believe what you see in cartoons, you would think that mice eat cheese. Actually, they like to eat fruits, seeds and grains. In winter weather, or if fresh fruit is nowhere to be found, planteating mice will devour tree bark, roots, oats, corn, or even root vegetables like potatoes. They are omnivorous, which means they eat both plants and meat (such as worms, centipedes and crickets, and even snails), and the common house mice will eat just about anything it can find. In fact, if food is scarce, mice will even eat each other.
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Evolution
Given a stable environment with plenty of food, mice can
remain within a small area of up to 10 yards. However, in many
urban cities, exponential mouse population growth forces mice on to
search for new food sources and more desirable habitats. Mice have
been tracked as moving more than half a mile in one night as
they set out to discover new locations to infest.
Mice are not commonly seen outside buildings, so ‘hitching a ride’ on packaged goods or using underground
passageways in urban environments are the main means by which they enter a new site. Once inside, mice will
start to explore the many internal ducts, voids, raised flooring and ceilings that allow them access to the entire
building – from the basement to the top floors.
Mice are very neophilic, which means it is in their nature to investigate new areas and objects in their
environment. This is part of their foraging strategy as they explore their environment, sampling anything that
may be of food value as they roam. A mouse needs only around 3 grams of food a day, but will often pick this up
from multiple locations rather than just one source – up to 40 different points in 24 hours, as demonstrated in an
experiment. If mice find moist food (containing as little as 15% water by weight), they do not need to drink.
While exploring and feeding, mice leave behind some rather unpleasant signs of their presence. Although there is
no truth to the myth that mice have no control of voluntary urination or defecation, they do leave little ‘dabs’ of
urine wherever they explore and feed.
Safe shelter and a relatively
small amount of food is all it
takes to sustain an infestation
of mice.
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Mice have big appetites.
Despite their tiny bodies (and even smaller stomachs!), mice eat between 15 and 20 times a day. Because of their frequent eating habits, they prefer to build their homes near food sources.
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They are little gymnasts….
Mice are good jumpers, climbers and swimmers. In fact, mice can jump a foot into the air, allowing them to easily climb up
onto kitchen counters or into pantries to access food.
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They have relatively short lifespans. In the wild, mice usually only live for about five months, mostly because of predators such as cats, snakes and foxes.
In a lab setting, mice can live for up to 4 years, and in homes, 2 years.
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A house mouse produces between 40 and
100 droppings per day.
Mice use urine as markers to determine where they have been. So, house mice constantly give off micro-droplets of urine as they travel around their territory every day.
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A female house mouse can give
birth when they are only two
months old, and they are able to
have to up to a dozen babies
every three weeks.
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References
Dr. Jim Fredericks. Tuesday, January 15, 2013. Eight Fascinating Facts You Never Knew about Mice. Retrieved from http://www.pestworld.org/news-and-views/pest-articles/articles/fascinating-facts-you-never-knew-about-mice/
Alicia. April 4, 2012. 12 Facts You Didn’t Know About Mice. Retrieved from http://www.rentokil.ie/blog/12factsaboutmice/
colugo10. 2006. Mus Musculus, the House Mouse. Retrieved from http://tolweb.org/treehouses/?treehouse_id=4297
Bradford, A. June 26, 2014. Mouse Facts: Habits, Habitat & Types of Mice. Retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/28028mice.html Newkirk, C. 2015. What Do Mice Eat in Nature?. Retrieved from http://animals.pawnation.com/miceeatnature2618.html Ehrlich Pest Control. Jan 15, 2015. How Urban Mice Adapt to Their Environments. Retrieved from http://www.jcehrlich.com/blog/howurbanmiceadapttotheirenvironments/
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