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| Description | Habitat | Range | Food | Life Cycle |
| Survival | Facts | Human Impact | References |
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White-footed mouse |
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Muridea |
| Genus: | Peromyscus |
| Species: | Peromyscus leucopus |
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| The White-footed Mouse has a medium sized body, short tail with sparse hair, and a darker coat of fur covering it's body than it's belly. The upper body coat is cinnamon mixed with a blackish brown color. Sides are paler with less mixture of black than on the under parts. It has white feet, and the "ankle" is slightly brownish. On their underbody they have a grayish brown fur that fades to a pale yellow brown. Their tails have a light covering of blackish brown hair. Their eyes are like small, shiny, black beads. The measurements of the white-footed mouse are: total length 173 mm, hind foot 21 mm, weight 18-32 grams averaging about 22 grams, and the tail is 8-10 cm.. |
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| The White-footed mice live in a wide variety of habitats. They are most abundant in warm, dry forests, barns, garages, fields, and places where they can easily find people's food supplies. Some white mice live outdoors during spring and summer and indoors during fall and winter. In the southern and western portions of their range, they are more restricted in distribution, occurring mainly in wooded areas and semi-desert scrub areas near waterways. They build nests in places that are warm and dry, such as a hollow tree or a deserted birds nest. |
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| White-footed mice are not endangered or threatened. They are
the most
abundant small rodents in mixed forests in the eastern United States and
in brushy areas bordering agricultural lands. Their home ranges vary
from 1/2 to 1 1/2 acres with four to twelve mice per acre. In southern Mexico
they occur mainly in agricultural areas.
White mice first lived in the dry parts of Asia, there they spread to Europe by being carried around on ships. |
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| Diet varies seasonally as well as geographically and may include seeds, berries, nuts, grains, fruits, and fungi. Since they do not hibernate, even in cold weather, they store seeds and nuts in the fall for the winter. |
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spot.colorado.edu/~sharonc/ CollingeLab.htm |
| Females display territorial behavior darning breeding season. Breeding season in North, March- June and September-November down South probably all year. Females breed at 10-11 weeks. At about 3 weeks after mating, a house mouse has from 4-13 pups, known as baby mice. When a mouse is born it is encased in an amniotic sac and is attached to its mother by an umbilical cord. Baby mice feed on their mother's nipples. They are completely helpless at the time when they are first born. At birth a baby house mouse is pink and has no hair only whiskers. It is only about 1/2 an inch long {which is as long as a match} including its tail and weighs less than 1/25 of an ounce. By the 4th or 5th day the pups eyes are still closed, but their ears are open and their toes are separated. Near the 8th day, the tiny mice are still blind but they make their first attempts at walking on small, wobbly, legs. On the 10th day the mice are covered with fur and look much different from the day that they were born. Between the 13th and 15th day, the young mice open their eyes and look curiously at their surroundings for the first time. At seventeen days old, they can nibble on solid foods. At three weeks, young mice could only eat and drink on their own. However, the mother doesn't wean them until they are about one month. The house mouse can live up to six years when it is in captivity. Wild mice usually live only live up to 15-18 months. They can mate for the first time when they are between six and eight weeks old, just a few weeks after leaving their nest. |
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| White-footed mice have a very keen sense of smell, extraordinary hearing and excellent balance. The mother mouse is very protective of her offspring. The white-footed mice need food, shelter, and water just like any other animal or human being. They need the five senses hearing, smell, sense of touch, taste, and sight to survive.. |
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| 1. When white-footed mice are first born they are smaller than a
match, they are very pink and their eyes are just huge black dots still
covered with the outer layer of skin. 2. They stay with their mother until they are about one month old and their mother carries them around in her mouth whenever they go somewhere. 3. White-footed mice make their nests out of whatever they can find including socks, foam, blankets, coats, wool bags, wood chips, hay, grass and rope. |
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| Humans might trap mice because they don't like them in their house, and some people kill them for no reason. Sense some people own cats, they might kill the mouse for their food source. Some people like to have mice as pets because they think that they are cute or they use them for experiments. And some people capture field mice to feed to their pets, while others may buy mice to feed to their pets. For example of animals that might be feed mice are: snakes, cats, foxes and many other animals. |
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