Deer Mouse

Peromyscus maniculatus

The deer mouse is primarily a nocturnal species. They spend most of their time on the ground but they are also an adept climber. Activity centers around a nest and food cache. Forest dwelling subspecies construct nests near the ground in stumps, logs, brush piles, tree cavities, reconstructed bird nests, tree bark, or even cottages or outbuildings. Nests are made of rounded masses of vegetable matter.

Family:

Cricetidae (New World rats and mice, voles, hamsters, and relatives)

Description:

The deer mouse is a small rodent about the size of a house mouse weighing less than 1 ounce and can reach to 8 inches long tail included. Peromyscus maniculatus has a round and slender body. The head has a pointed nose with large, black, beady eyes. The ears are large and have little fur covering them. They are grayish to reddish brown with white underparts. The fur is short, soft, and dense. The finely-haired tail is bicolored, the darker top half and the lighter bottom sharply differentiated.

Habitat:

The deer mouse occupies many different ecological zones throughout its range. Deer mice can be found in alpine habitats, northern boreal forest, desert, grassland, brushland, agricultural fields, southern montane woodland, and arid upper tropical habitats. Its most common habitats are prairies, bushy areas, and woodlands.

Range:

Peromyscus maniculatus is a North American species. It is distributed from the northern tree line in Alaska and Canada southward to central Mexico. It is absent from the southeastern United States and some coastal areas of Mexico within this range.

Diet:

This mouse is an omnivore. It eats a wide variety of plant and animal matter depending on what is available, including insects and other invertebrates, seeds, fruits, flowers, nuts, and other plant products.

Breeding:

Females are seasonally polyestrous with an estrous cycle of about five days. Females exhibit post-partum estrus and are able to become pregnant shortly after giving birth. The gestation period of a nonlactating female deer mouse lasts from 22.4 to 25.5 days and 24.1 to 30.6 days in a lactating female. Litter size is highly variable between populations. They may have litters containing from one to eleven young with typical litters containing four, five, or six individuals.

mtm 2-7-21/0k