Mary Allen
Cute or gross? Opinions are divided on the house mouse: Some find the little rodent cute, for others it is a pest.
Characteristics
What do house mice look like?
The house mouse belongs to the subfamily of Old World mice and the long-tailed mouse family and thus to the order of rodents. It measures seven to eleven centimeters from head to bottom. In addition, there is the tail, which is seven to ten centimeters long. He is ringed and only slightly hairy. An animal weighs just 20 to 25 grams. The fur of the house mouse is usually gray to brown, the belly is lighter. In addition, each animal is characterized by a very special smell that makes it unmistakable.
A variant of the house mouse is so-called color mice, which have been bred with different fur colors and are kept as pets, as well as the white laboratory mice. Pet mice and lab mice can grow almost twice as heavy as their wild relatives.
Where do house mice live?
The house mouse probably originally came from India. Today it is spread all over the world.
The natural habitats of the house mouse are steppes and deserts. The animals live underground there. They dig tunnels and burrows in the ground in which they build their nests and stock up on food. In the human environment, the house mouse can be found in houses, apartments, pantries, cellars, barns, fields, and in many other places where they feel safe and can find enough food.
What types of house mice are there?
We have two subspecies of the house mouse: Fossils show that the eastern house mouse (Mus musculus) reached Western Europe (Belgium) from India via Central Asia. They were already there around 4000 BC. The western house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) migrated to the Mediterranean via western Asia and reached about 4000 BC. Greece. From there it reached Spain and – presumably with Roman ships – the British Isles. After all, the house mouse has also conquered Africa, America, Asia, and Australia as a stowaway on ships.
Today the western house mouse is pushing the eastern house mouse back more and more towards the east. There are three other subspecies of the house mouse that are not found here: the Asian house mouse, the Manchurian house mouse, and the Wagner house mouse.
The wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) is very similar to the house mouse. It is distributed from western to eastern Europe and from southern Scandinavia to North Africa. With us, it lives in open habitats such as fields and meadows, but also in parks.
How old do house mice get?
In the human environment, house mice can live two to three years, but outdoors they live much less – often just a few months.
Behave
How do house mice live?
Wherever people live, there are also mice: the house mouse is a very adaptable cultural follower. This is what animals are called that live in the immediate vicinity of humans because they can find plenty of food here, for example. Excavations in Anatolia in Turkey show that mice were already looking for shelter in human dwellings around 10,000 years ago. House mice are sociable, mostly living together in families. They are originally diurnal. However, if they live close to humans, they usually only appear at dusk and at night, as they feel safer then.
In the open country, house mice always use the same paths, which they mark with urine, just like their territories. These paths can sometimes be recognized as small “trails” – for example on the lawn. The animals can run, jump, climb and swim very well. They have a very good sense of hearing and smell. House mice can be observed all year round. Only when the food supply is very scarce do they fall into a so-called hibernation in the wild. However, they do not hibernate.
Because house mice feed on people’s supplies and also leave feces and urine there, making the supplies so inedible, they are considered pests. They can also transmit dangerous pathogens. Mice also sometimes chew on electrical wires, causing damage, or chew through the paper or cardboard they use to line their nests
On the other hand, the bred variant of the house mouse, the laboratory mouse, is of great importance to humans. It is used for drug testing and cancer research, but also for behavioral research.