The northern grasshopper mouse (''Onychomys leucogaster'') is a North American
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
rodent
Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the order Rodentia (), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal species are rodents. They are na ...
of the family
Cricetidae
The Cricetidae are a family of rodents in the large and complex superfamily Muroidea. It includes true hamsters, voles, lemmings, muskrats, and New World rats and mice. At almost 608 species, it is the second-largest family of mammals, and has m ...
.
It ranges over much of the western part of the continent, from southern Saskatchewan and central Washington to
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
in northeast Mexico.
Background information
The northern grasshopper mouse is found in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, but primarily in dry areas. They are similar in body size to other mice; on average they are long and about in weight. The tail is most often less than 30% of the total body length, whereas other mice tend to have longer tails adding to long body lengths. The grasshopper mouse is a reddish-black/grey color with white hair on the belly. Unlike most rodents, this one has a mostly
carnivorous
A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements derive from animal tissues (mainly muscle, fat and other sof ...
diet mainly consisting of small
insects
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of j ...
, other mice, and even snakes; no more than a quarter of its diet is plant-based. This rodent is also nocturnal. Throughout the night, the grasshopper mouse makes high-pitched noises to claim its
territory
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
.
Habitat
This grasshopper mouse can be found in prairies with low grass, dry areas, and also pasture lands of the central and southwestern parts of the United States. ''O. leucogaster'' has been known to associate positively with
black-tailed prairie dogs
The black-tailed prairie dog (''Cynomys ludovicianus'') is a rodent of the family Sciuridae found in the Great Plains of North America from about the United States-Canada border to the United States-Mexico border. Unlike some other prairie dog ...
, possibly due to their preference for disturbed areas, suitable habitat in the form of burrows, or food supply.
[Choate, J. R. and D. M. Terry. 1974. Observations on habitat preference of Onychomys leucogaster (Rodentia: Muridae) on the central Great Plains. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 76:263-265.][Stapp, P. 1997. Habitat selection by an insectivorous rodent: patterns and mechanisms across multiple scales. ]Journal of Mammalogy
The ''Journal of Mammalogy'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society of Mammalogists. Both the society and the journal were established in 1919. The journal covers rese ...
78: 1128-1143.[Bala Thiagarajan. 2006]
Community dynamics of rodents, fleas and plague associated with the black-tailed prairie dogs
Doctoral dissertation submitted to Kansas State University
Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...
. The northern grasshopper mouse lives in burrows underground, by either digging its own or inhabiting burrows that have been disowned. These mice have a system of multiple burrows, with each burrow serving a different function. The nest burrow is the primary area of activity during the day; since they are
nocturnal
Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...
, they do not need to be in a burrow during the night. To keep moisture in during the day, they close up the opening. A retreat burrow serves for quick escape from predators. Its design is about 10 inches into the ground at a 45° angle. The cache burrow is used for storing seeds. The signpost burrows are small and filled with glandular secretions that mark the boundaries of their territory. All of these burrows are found within a large area of territory.
Reproduction
The northern grasshopper mouse has about two or three litters a year consisting of two to seven young, with the average being four. They have a gestation of 32–47 days, and the young are born in either late fall or early winter, between September and February. The male gathers and provides food for the female while she is pregnant and taking care of her young.
[Burt, W.H., R.P. Grossenheider. 1976. The Peterson Field Guide Series: A Field Guide to the Mammals. Peterson, R.A. (Ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, p.166-67.] The northern grasshopper mouse is an
altricial
In biology, altricial species are those in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth. Precocial species are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the mome ...
species; baby mice are naked with closed eyes when they are born, and weigh about three grams. Both sexes reach their sexual maturity at three months, but the lifespan of a typical mouse living in the wild is only a few weeks to a few months.
Diseases
Susceptibility studies on grasshopper mice from areas with plague and from those areas that have been historically free of plague by Thomas et al. (1988)
[Thomas, R. E., A. M. Barnes, T. J. Quan , M. L. Beard , L. G. Carter, and C. E. Hopla. 1988. Susceptibility to ''Yersinia pestis'' in the northern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster). Journal of Wildlife Diseases 24:327–33.] showed the animals from areas with a history of plague were more resistant to the plague bacterium ''Yersinia pestis'' than the animals from a historically plague-free area, hence they were considered to be a potential alternate host for plague. Grasshopper mice have also been shown to harbor 57 species of fleas, many of which are
vectors of plague.
[6) Thomas, R. E. 1988. A review of flea collection records from ''Onychomys leucogaster'' with observations on the role of grasshopper mice in the epizoology of wild rodent plague. Great Basin Naturalist 48: 83-95.] Given the abundance and diversity of fleas on the grasshopper mouse and their use of prairie dog burrows and interaction with other rodent species, they are considered to be important for the maintenance and transmission of plague in the prairie dog ecosystem.
[Gage, K. L., and M. Y. Kosoy. 2005. Natural history of the plague: perspectives from more than a century of research. Annual Review of Entomology 50:505 - 528.] They are also found frequently infected with another hemotropic
intracellular
This glossary of biology terms is a list of definitions of fundamental terms and concepts used in biology, the study of life and of living organisms. It is intended as introductory material for novices; for more specific and technical definitions ...
pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
''Bartonella''
and Ying et al. 2007
[Ying, B., M. Kosoy, J. F. Cully, T. Bala, C. Ray, AND S. Collinge. 2007. Acquisition of non-specific ''Bartonella'' strains by the northern grasshopper mouse (''Onychomys leucogaster''). FEMS Micro. Ecol. 61 (3): 438–448.] showed that they can acquire different strains of ''Bartonella'' from multiple rodent species.
References
External links
The Mammals of Texas - Online Edition Entry
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1769900
Onychomys
Mammals described in 1841