White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)

Predators

Habitat

Diet

Related Sites

eNature: White-footed Mouse

White Footed Mouse | Stillwater, MN | View Enlarged Image

Renaissance Rodents

White footed mice are amazing and adaptable creatures. They can climb and tunnel, are extremely fast, and can jump up to three feet (pretty impressive for something that is less than two inches tall). They live just about anywhere in Minnesota; from suburbs to old growth forests, from wetlands to prairies. Naturalists figure they may actually outnumber birds in some area, reaching numbers of as high as 19,000 per square mile in the summer months††.

Mice serve an extremely important role, both on the food chain and as the seeders of forests. These little guys are basically on everyone carnivore or omnivore's menu; from Great Horned Owls and Great Blue Herons to River Otters and Red Squirrels. As for promoting healthy forests, not only do they store plenty of acorns and other seeds; groundcover seeds and fungus spores are spread in their droppings. Their tunnels also help to promote irrigation and root growth, while they feast on insects, including many of the imported ones that present a danger to local trees. They will even gnaw the bones away from carrion!

White-footed mice build nests in rotting logs, tree cavities, underground burrows, and even small bird houses (hollowed out tennis balls are supposed to be great for providing them a little shelter). They're on the menu for just about every predator in our state, and it's lucky they're small, nocturnal and prodigious. A female can have two to four litters per year (they don't breed during the winter months), each containing up to nine young.†††

Despite popular beliefs, mice do not hibernate in the winter, and continue to seek food sources during even the coldest months of the year, often plying their way into our homes or storage sheds as winter sets in. They are nocturnal animals, so you will often run into their droppings more often than you do them. Unlike many of their cousins, they are actually quite clean.

While a mouse as a house guest may seem like an invasion, we need to remember that they have been a native part of this land for thousands of years. You do want to keep them out of your food, however, and most hardware stores sell humane live traps. Peanut butter does wonders to capture them; just make sure you check the trap at least once a day. If you catch a mouse, try to release them into a wooded area with a lot of dead wood for burrowing. If they can find easier pickings outside, they'll tend to forget your dwelling.

Multimedia:


White-footed Mouse; trail markers; tracks \| Stillwater, MN	White-footed Mouse; trail markers; track patterns\| Stillwater, MN

Add to our growing wildlife encyclopedia! Submit a photo or other footage of this species!*

Want to Learn More?

In an effort to make our site as comprehensive as possible, we have supplemented our online park and wildlife survey with other educational resources. Every book we recommend has been hand-picked by a Beyond Main Street volunteer. 7.5% of all proceeds from the links below go to help Beyond Main Street build a larger, more comprehensive site!

	National Audubon Society's Field Guide to Mammals
††	The Wild Woods Guide
	Tracks of Minnesota and Wisconsin

*Submissions are full and credited property of their original owner. The name of the sender will be printed below the submission unless otherwise requested. BMS maintains one-time printing rights only. For legal reasons, all video and photography must be your own work. If there is a copyright on it, you must own it. Video, photos, and writing must have been created in Minnesota or surrounding area to be added to our database.