Know Your Enemy
Accurate identification of pests is as important as choosing the best preventive pest management available on the market today. Preventive Pest Control has compiled a list of most common pests to help you identify the problem.
Hopping Mouse
(Notomys)
Characteristics
All species of the hopping mouse are brown or light-grayish brown, or light pale, with a white underbelly. The hopping mouse has a long tail and hind legs that are similar to a kangaroo. Its size is similar to a rat, but it has large protruding eyes, large ears, and small throat pouch that creates secretion to mark its territory.
Habitat
These animals are native in the sandy desert of Australia. Although they live in the desert, they are known to persevere as they can live with very little water for a long time. These mice prefer to create burrows with a nest chamber. They prefer to live with other mice and may find many of them in one burrow.
Behavior
Hopping mice are unique creatures. They do not walk or run like an ordinary mouse, but they will hop and dig just like kangaroos. They are very active animals and will love to jump very high and move quickly at night. During the day, they will stay inside their burrows. They prefer to cuddle each other and stay in one chamber so that they can avoid water loss.
Their burrows are made of clustered systems that connect them to their immediate families. They work through cooperation and harmony that allows their colony to become stronger. However, when their population grows, cooperating with each other becomes difficult, which would may even result in the killing of their young just so they can decrease their population.
Food
This rodent prefers to eat seeds. The hopping mice are omnivorous creatures. When seeds are not available, they may eat other vegetables and insects.
Life Cycle
Females will start to breed and become mature after 85 days from her birth. She can mate with different males during her estrous cycle, but will have only one biological father for all of her youngs. Her estrous cycle last for a week. After that, she will carry her unborn for 32 to 34 days. Once the young mice are born, the mother will nurse them for almost 28 days, then they will leave their nest and go on their own, or they could stay with their mother to live in one burrow. In the wild, the hopping mice can live for a year, but those in captivity are known to live for three years.
Other Information and Tips
Most of the species of the hopping mice are now extinct and may need our help, to save them from their demise. Their species are in constant threat from predation, and the loss of their habitats. While they may look like a mouse, these animals should not be considered pests, but should be given the attention they need to conserve their species.
Photo: Hopping Mice by Stephen Michael Barnett, used under CC BY 2.0 / resized from original