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Last week’s article, on flying squirrels, was prompted by an e-mail and a photo sent from Jim Spenser, who lives on Horse Thief Run Road, in Tioga County. This week Jim has sent me a photo of a mouse that he wanted me to identify. Jim had been plowing his field when he unearthed a nest of strange looking mice. Jim climbed off his tractor for a closer look and was able to capture one of the mice. He took the mouse back to his house and put it in a container. When I talked to Jim he mentioned that the mice hopped like kangaroos. I knew then that he was talking about either the meadow jumping mouse or its close cousin the woodland jumping mouse.
I also questioned Jim as to whether the mouse had a white tip on its rather long tail. He replied that it did not. This meant that his captured mouse was a meadow jumping mouse. If the mouse had a white tip on its tail, it would have been a woodland jumping mouse. Also, the location where the mouse was found was an indication of its species. The meadow jumping mouse is a meadow-loving mouse; while the woodland jumping mouse is found more often in our forested areas. Jim told me that he kept the mouse for a day before releasing it back in the same area where caught and when released, the mouse took off in big leaps.
The meadow jumping mouse is built for taking those big leaps, with small forelegs, enormous hind feet and a scaly and scantly furred-long tapered tail, which is one and one half times as long at the mouse’s body. The mouse’s eyes are well-developed but not bulging out of its head as those of other nocturnal mice (example: white-footed mouse).
The meadow jumping mouse’s scientific name is Zapus hudsonius. Zapus comes from two Greek words: za meaning much or very and pous meaning the foot; taken to mean strong or big feet. The name hudsonius named for Hudson Bay, Canada, the mouse also inhabits other areas of North America.
The meadow jumping mouse and the woodland jumping mouse are our only hibernating mice. The meadow jumping mouse (aka kangaroo mouse) comes out of its winter hibernation in either late April or May. The males emerge before the females and mating begins as soon as the females come out of hibernation. Within two weeks, after emerging from hibernation, all females will be bred. The gestation period is eighteen days, and the female will have two or three litters a year. The average litter size is five; however, litter sizes of nine have been recorded. Here, in Northern Pennsylvania, the young are born naked, pink, blind, clawless, deaf and able to squeak loudly. By the third week, the young are furred; able to hop about and hear. By the fourth week, the young have adult fur, and at this time, the mice leave their mothers. After two months, the mice born in the spring can reproduce.
The meadow jumping mouse is solitary except during breeding season. It is generally active at night but occasionally can be seen out and about during the day. The summer nest is made of grass and generally placed in
or under protective structures or underground. Hibernation begins in either late September or early October, depending on the amount of fat reserve each mouse has put on. Juveniles usually hibernate later than adults. A hibernating den is lined with grasses and leaves and is at
least eighteen inches underground. The mouse curls up into a tight ball, with its nose on chest. While in hibernation, the mouse’s body temperature can drop as low as 35 degrees Fahrenheit; circulation slows because of a heart beat of a few beats per minute and breathing drops from 145 breaths per minute.
Meadow jumping mice eat mostly seeds, berries, fruit and insects. A tell-tale sign of meadow jumping mice in an area will be grass that has been cut, with a pile of debris scattered on the ground.
The meadow jumping mouse tries to stay one jump ahead of death because they are fed upon by most snakes, weasels, foxes, cats, minks and hawks during the day and owls at night. This mouse’s saving grace could be
its unavailability to these predators during the six months when in hibernation.
This mouse goes through a yearly molt that starts in mid-June and lasts for three weeks. It is our only mammal with eighteen teeth.
Haying time has always been hard work; however, for young boys, a diversion from the work was to chase after the jumping mice that sometimes darted out from under the hay forks and bounce off across the field.