A Day in the Life Of a Mouse…(or better said A Night in Life of a Mouse)
The lights go out….the house is silent and it is time for Bertha to rise, a 6 month old female mouse, which in mouse years is late middle age. Bertha stretches in her nest and wakes her five surviving young from a litter of six two weeks ago. Bertha touches them and smells them to ensure they are in good and functioning condition.
Inspirational Quote
Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. ~ William James
It’s hard to believe but in approximately two weeks the young will be weaned and completely independent. They will have to be. Bertha, their mother is already pregnant with her next litter and she has been since two days after their birth. And when Bertha’s offspring are two months old, her offspring will be having litters of their own.
In fact, theoretically, by the time Bertha has lived out her life, a year if she is lucky, and all of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren could have young in the same year…that could be 5,000 mice!!! See how quickly a rodent program multiplies. If you require immediate assistance with rodent removal or better said to get rid of a mice infestation, please call Wildlife Busters toll free at 855-945-1212.
Now, it’s time for Bertha to provide for her youth. She squeezes through a hole no bigger than a quarter, escaping the wall void where she has rested and waited throughout the day. She stops…startled by a noise. Like all mice, she’s nearsighted. Her dark, hyperthyroid eyes see little; but her quivering nostrils and fanlike ears tell her “all clear.” Bertha begins to move darting from familiar place to familiar place. She relies heavily on her “kinesthetic” sense, basically a subconscious recording of a series of muscle movements…than on her eyes, ears and nose.
Turn left. Run fifteen paces. Stop. Turn left. Run ten paces. Scramble up a pallet. Dart five paces nibble on some spilled oatmeal. Turn right. One, two, three, climb up stacked boxes. Pause. Nibble on torn sack of wheat. Turn left. Run 6 paces. Put right whiskers on edge of case of oatmeal and run four paces….wait….ah oh!! No case of oatmeal!!
A box moved is a crisis for a mouse. Bertha is now confused. Her universe has changed and life is more complicated. Bertha immediately stops her normal routine. Over the next hour she slowly re-explores her territory, investigating all items she comes across, old or new. Bertha re-establishes her safe routes and reprograms her muscle memories so that she can once again dart from place to place.
Bertha, now being comfortable with her surroundings once again, resumes her territorial circuit and feeding routine. But she is not alone now….working her territory she smells a male mouse. She is now searching for him. She spots him. Within 7 inches, our mouse knows by smell that it is a stranger, not family. Bertha hurls all 20 grams of herself at the invader, she drives him away with continuous violent attacks.
While not as aggressive as a male mouse, she is not the “mousy” type displayed in cartoons. She is an aggressive protector of her territory and social status. Bertha’s family group consists of an alpha male, another breeding female, twelve daughters, four sons…forms a colony that all members defend fiercely.
After Bertha successfully chased away the stranger, she resumes her territorial circuit. She nibbles on different foods throughout the evening, usually eating 20 times or more, but eating very little at most stops. Bertha does have a favorite feeding site where she eats more than usual, under a bottom shelf where grain and bird seed has spilled.
The territory of our mouse’s family group is small extending from a nest site in the wall void, out through a gnawed hole to a food storage pallet across tow feet of floor to a few stacked food boxes up onto a series of food shelves, into the wall through a pipe run and back down to the nest site. Mice seldom establish territories that extend beyond 30 feet. In this case Bertha’s territory is approximately 10 feet.
Bertha’s family once included six other sons. These six sons have been driven away by the dominant male as they matured and began to compete for mating rights. This natural dispersion of males into new nesting and feeding sites (inches), combined with fast population growth that overloads resources, are the reasons that mice spread so quickly through a building or residential structure.
If you are experiencing a mouse infestation and require immediate assistance with rodent removal, please call our office toll free at 855-945-1212 or email us at [email protected]. Our annual Rodent Prevention Program will protect you all year round.
Fun Animal Facts
Smithsonian magazine once reported on a barrel of biscuits which had been sealed in Aberdeen, Scotland and opened in the Canadian Arctic 14 months later. Out popped a live mouse! Mice have been found at the bottom of English Coal mines and 15,000 feet up in the Andes, in coastal deserts of South America and an island near Antarctica, even nesting in meat lockers in temperatures 5 to 10 degrees below zero. House mice are tough and adaptable!
Community Wildlife Programs and Upcoming Events
SRBP Lecture Series: Climbing and Conservation in the Gunks, February 13, 2014 Thursday, 7-8:30pm. SRBP Lecture Series: Northern Saw-whet Owls – Eastern Migration, February 20, 2014 Thursday, 7-8:30pm. Winter Woods Snowshoe or Hike, February 22, 2014 Saturday,10am-12:30pm. SRBP Lecture Series: Snakes in the Shawangunks, February 27, 2014 Thursday, 7-8:30pm. Kids’ Day in the Sugarbush, March 2, 2014 Sunday, 1-3pm. (snowdate: Sunday, March 9th, 1-3pm). For more information please visit;
Hudson Highlands Nature Museum
Maple Sugar Tours, March 1 & 2, 8 & 9, 15 & 16, 22 & 23 Saturday & Sunday, 10:30am-3pm
The Bear Mountain Zoo located in the Bear Mountain State Park, NY
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