Mouse Id.

[C H]

The owls have been very active in our area this winter, dropping fresh pellets under our fir trees daily. Pellets have ranged in size from a walnut to a kiwi. Most the size of a small chicken egg. Yesterday I found this carcass under the trees. I assumed it was dropped by an owl, but that seems rather odd. Can you tell me which mouse or rodent this is? Note

the long hairy tail with a white tip, white feet and belly, buff or tan on the sides. I live near Ankeny NWR.

Charlotte 

[Lisa Millbank]

That's a North American Deer Mouse.  We have a lot of vole species around here but aside from those, there are no other mousy-looking small rodents except the Pacific Jumping Mouse and the House Mouse.  A House Mouse tail is nearly naked and the tops of the feet are usually gray, and the jumping mouse has an exceedingly long tail, long rear feet, and a two-toned brown back. The North American Deer Mouse has that furry tail and large eyes for nocturnal activity.  Hard to imagine what happened with this one!  It would be interesting to see if the owl pellets contain a lot of deer mice skulls.

They are cute little guys, generally keep to themselves, and are important prey for many other animals, but they do carry a type of hantavirus that is very rare, but fatal in more than a third of cases.  The virus is usually inhaled when people create dust in an enclosed space, which contains infected deer mouse urine and droppings.  If outbuildings and sheds can be rodent-proofed to keep deer mice from living in them, it practically eliminates any risk of hantavirus.

Lisa Millbank

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