Eastern Deer Mouse
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''Peromyscus maniculatus'', the eastern deermouse, is a
rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...
native to eastern
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. It is a species of the genus ''
Peromyscus ''Peromyscus'' is a genus of rodents. They are commonly referred to as deer mice or deermice, not to be confused with the chevrotain or "mouse deer". They are New World mice only distantly related to the common house and laboratory mouse, ''M ...
'', a closely related group of New World mice often called "deermice". When formerly grouped with the western deermouse (''P. sonoriensis''), it was once referred to as the North American deermouse, a species which is no longer recognized. It is fairly widespread across most of North America east of the
Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
, with the major exception being the lowland
southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...
. Like certain other ''Peromyscus'' species, it can be a
vector Vector most often refers to: * Euclidean vector, a quantity with a magnitude and a direction * Disease vector, an agent that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism Vector may also refer to: Mathematics a ...
and carrier of
emerging infectious disease An emerging infectious disease (EID) refer to infectious diseases that have either newly appeared in a population or have existed but are rapidly increasing in incidence, geographic range, or severity due to factors such as environmental change ...
s such as
hantavirus ''Orthohantavirus'' is a genus of viruses that includes all hantaviruses (family ''Hantaviridae'') that cause disease in humans. Orthohantaviruses, hereafter referred to as hantaviruses, are naturally found primarily in rodents. In general, each ...
es and
Lyme disease Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a tick-borne disease caused by species of ''Borrelia'' bacteria, Disease vector, transmitted by blood-feeding ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. It is the most common disease spread by ticks in th ...
. It is closely related to ''
Peromyscus leucopus The white-footed mouse (''Peromyscus leucopus'') is a rodent native to North America from southern Canada to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is a species of the genus ''Peromyscus'', a closely related group of New World mice often ...
'', the white-footed mouse.


Overview

The species in its former broad sense had 61 subspecies, but some of these now belong to ''P. sonoriensis''. They are all tiny mammals that are plentiful in number. The eastern deermouse is a small
rodent Rodents (from Latin , 'to gnaw') are mammals of the Order (biology), order Rodentia ( ), which are characterized by a single pair of continuously growing incisors in each of the upper and Mandible, lower jaws. About 40% of all mammal specie ...
that lives in eastern North America and is closely related to the white-footed mouse, ''
Peromyscus leucopus The white-footed mouse (''Peromyscus leucopus'') is a rodent native to North America from southern Canada to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is a species of the genus ''Peromyscus'', a closely related group of New World mice often ...
''.The New Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. (Vol. 12, p. 631). Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica. Because the two species are extremely similar in appearance, they are best distinguished through red blood cell agglutination tests or karyotype techniques. They can also be distinguished physically by its long and multicolored tail. Deer mouse species, such as the eastern deermouse, the
white-footed mouse The white-footed mouse (''Peromyscus leucopus'') is a rodent native to North America from southern Canada to the southwestern United States and Mexico. It is a species of the genus ''Peromyscus'', a closely related group of New World mice often ...
, and the
cactus mouse The cactus mouse or cactus deermouse (''Peromyscus eremicus'') is a species of rodent in the family Cricetidae. It is a species of the genus ''Peromyscus'', a closely related group of New World mice often called "deermice". They are native to des ...
, are very often used for laboratory experimentation due to their self cleanliness and easy care.


Physical description

The eastern deermouse is small in size, only long, not including the tail. They have large beady eyes and large ears giving them good
sight Visual perception is the ability to detect light and use it to form an image of the surrounding Biophysical environment, environment. Photodetection without image formation is classified as ''light sensing''. In most vertebrates, visual percept ...
and
hearing Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds through an organ, such as an ear, by detecting vibrations as periodic changes in the pressure of a surrounding medium. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory sci ...
. ''Peromyscus maniculatus'' has soft fur which varies in color, from gray to brown, but all deermice have a distinguishable white underside and white feet. Deermice tails are covered with fine hairs, with the same dark/light split as the fur on the rest of its body. ''P. maniculatus'' has distinct subspecies. Of those most common in North America, the woodland form has longer hind legs, a longer tail, and larger ears than the prairie form.


Behavior

Eastern deermice are
nocturnal Nocturnality is a ethology, behavior in some non-human animals characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnality, diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatur ...
creatures which spend the daytime in areas such as trees or burrows, where they have nests made of plant material. The pups within litters of eastern deermice are kept by the mother within an individual home range, typically of 242 to 3000 square meters. Ranges may overlap, more likely with an opposite sex, as males have much greater home ranges than the more territorial females. Deermice that live within overlapping home ranges tend to recognize one another and frequently interact. The woodland variety of ''P. maniculatus'' is an adept climber, and prefers tree cover well above the ground, while the prairie form prefers to move from burrow to burrow in open areas, avoiding cover.


High-elevation adaptations

Some eastern deermice are found at high elevations, where there are low levels of oxygen and ambient temperatures. They encounter year-round cold and hypoxia, undergoing their entire reproductive cycles under these harsh conditions. Chronic hypoxia can limit the growth of these high-elevation deermice during gestation, which can affect development and maternal physiology. However, several physiological adaptations allow them to survive in high-elevation environments, including a greater capacity for carbohydrate and lipid oxidation than low-elevation mice. Mouse populations living at different elevations show allelic variation among gene duplicates that encode the α-chain subunits of adult
hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin, Hb or Hgb) is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transportation of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the sole exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin ...
. Modifications in the α and β globin genes may also indicate an increase in hemoglobin-oxygen affinity and oxygen transport in these high-elevation populations.


Reproduction and life span


Procreation

''Peromyscus maniculatus'' are
polygynous Polygyny () is a form of polygamy entailing the marriage of a man to several women. The term polygyny is from Neoclassical Greek πολυγυνία (); . Incidence Polygyny is more widespread in Africa than in any other continent. Some scholar ...
, meaning one male will mate with multiple females. They exhibit behaviors associated with polygyny, as males have much larger territory than females, live with multiple females, and are known to commit infanticide if they catch young unattended. Though they usually live alone, during winter the single male-multiple female cohort may live in a shared nest.


Breeding season

Eastern deer mice can reproduce throughout the year, though in most parts of their range, they breed from March to October.Nowak, Ronald M.; Paradiso, John L. (1983). ''Walker's mammals of the world. 4th edition.'' Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press Their breeding tends to be determined more by food availability rather than by season. In
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, breeding peaks occur from April to June and from September to October.


Nesting

Female eastern deer mice construct nests using a variety of materials including grasses, roots, mosses, wool, thistledown, and various artificial fibers. The male deer mice are allowed by the female to help nest the litter and keep them together and warm for survival.Hanney, Peter W. (1975) ''Rodents: Their Lives and Habits''. New York: Taplinger Publishing Company. In a study, less than half of both male and female eastern deer mice left their original home range to reproduce. This means that there is intrafamilial mating and that the gene flow among this species as a whole is limited. There have been recent laboratory studies that reveal eastern deer mice can have OCD-like behaviors from altered gut microbiota. This phenomenon is typically shown in building abnormally large nests within 8 weeks of birth. Such behavior is considered a maladaptation, unnecessarily investing extra energy and effort in building larger nests in stable laboratory conditions.


Gestation, litter size and productivity

Deer mice ''Peromyscus'' is a genus of rodents. They are commonly referred to as deer mice or deermice, not to be confused with the chevrotain or "mouse deer". They are New World mice only distantly related to the common house and laboratory mouse, ''M ...
reproduce profusely and are highest in numbers among their genus compared to other local
mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...
s, with eastern deermice being among the most numerous. ''Peromyscus'' species' gestation periods range from 22 to 26 days. Typical litters are composed of three to five young; litter size ranges from one to nine young. Most female eastern deer mice have more than one litter per year. Three or four litters per year is probably typical; captive eastern deer mice have borne as many as 14 litters in one year. Males usually live with the family and help care for the young.


Development of young

Eastern deer mouse pups are
altricial Precocial species in birds and mammals are those in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching. They are normally nidifugous, meaning that they leave the nest shortly after birth or hatching. Altricial ...
, i.e. born blind, naked and helpless; development is rapid. Young deer mice have full coats by the end of the second week; their eyes open between 13 and 19 days and they are fully furred and independent in only a few weeks. Females have three pairs of
teat A teat is the projection from the mammary glands of mammals from which milk flows or is ejected for the purpose of feeding young. In many mammals, the teat projects from the udder. The number of teats varies by mammalian species and often corr ...
s. They lactate for 27 to 34 days after giving birth; most young are weaned at about 18 to 24 days. The young reach adult size at about 6 weeks and continue to gain weight slowly thereafter. Age of first estrus averages about 48 days; the earliest recorded was 23 days. The youngest wild female to produce a litter was 55 days old; it was estimated that conception had occurred when she was about 32 days old.


Dispersal

Eastern deer mouse pups usually disperse after weaning and before the birth of the next litter, when they are reaching sexual maturity. Occasionally juveniles remain in the natal area, particularly when breeding space is limited. Most deer mouse species travel less than from the natal area to establish their own home range.


Longevity and mortality

In the lab their maximum life span is 96 months, and mean life expectancy is 45.5 months for females and 47.5 for males. In many areas, eastern deer mice live less than 1 year. One captive male deer mouse lived 32 months, and there is a report of a forest specimen that lived 8 years in captivity, and another mouse was fertile until almost 6 years of age.


Habitat

''Peromyscus maniculatus'' are found in all throughout eastern
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
. The majority of deer mice nest high up, in large hollow trees. The deer mouse nests alone for the most part but during the winter will nest in groups of 10 or more. Deer mice, specifically the prairie form, are also abundant in the farmland of the midwestern United States. Deer mice can be found active on top of snow or beneath logs during the winter seasons. In northern New England deer mice are present in both coniferous and
deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
forests. Deer mice are often the only ''Peromyscus'' species in northern boreal forest.Baker, Rollin H. (1968). "Habitats and distribution". In: King, John Arthur, ed. ''Biology of Peromyscus (Rodentia)''. Special Publication No. 2. Stillwater, OK: ''The American Society of Mammalogists'' 98–126. Subspecies differ in their use of plant communities and vegetation structures. There are two main groups of deer mouse: the prairie deer mouse and the woodland or forest deer mouse group.Whitaker, John O., Jr. (1980). ''National Audubon Society field guide to North American mammals.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.


Cover requirements

Deer mice are often active in open habitat; most subspecies do not develop hidden runways the way many voles (''
Microtus ''Microtus'' is a genus of voles found in North America, Europe and northern Asia. The genus name refers to the small ears of these animals. They are stout rodents with short ears, legs and tails. They eat green vegetation such as grasses and se ...
'' and ''
Clethrionomys ''Clethrionomys'' is a genus of small, slender voles. In recent years the genus name was changed to ''Myodes'', however a 2019 paper found that ''Myodes'' was actually a junior synonym for '' Lemmus'', thus making it unusable. As such, ''Clethrio ...
'' spp.) do. In open habitat within forests deer mice have a tendency to visit the nearest timber. In central Ontario deer mice used downed wood for runways. Deer mice nest in burrows dug in the ground or construct nests in raised areas such as brush piles, logs, rocks, stumps, under bark, and in hollows in trees. Nests are also constructed in various structures and artifacts including old boards and abandoned vehicles. Nests have been found up to above the ground in
Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is the tallest tree in the Pinaceae family. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Or ...
(''Pseudotsuga menziesii)'' trees.Maser, Chris; Mate, Bruce R.; Franklin, Jerry F.; Dyrness, C. T. (1981). Natural history of Oregon Coast mammals. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-133. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station.


Predators

Deer mice are important prey for snakes (
Viperidae Vipers are snakes in the family Viperidae, found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, New Zealand, Ireland, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous snake, venomous and have long (relat ...
), owls (
Strigidae The true owls or typical owls (family (biology), family Strigidae) are one of the two generally accepted families of owls, the other being the barn owls and bay owls (Tytonidae). This large family comprises 230 living or recently extinct species ...
),
American mink The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of Mustelidae, mustelid native to North America, though human introduction has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. Because of range expansion, the Am ...
s (''Neogale vison''),
American marten The American marten (''Martes americana''), also known as the American pine marten, is a species of North American mammal, a member of the Family (biology), family Mustelidae. The species is sometimes referred to as simply the pine marten. The n ...
s (''Martes americana'') and other mustelids, as well as skunks ('' Mephitis'' and ''
Spilogale The genus ''Spilogale'' includes all skunks commonly known as spotted skunks. Currently, there are four accepted extant species: ''S. gracilis'', ''S. putorius'', ''S. pygmaea'', and ''S. angustifrons''. New research, however, proposes that ther ...
'' sp.),
bobcat The bobcat (''Lynx rufus''), also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of the four extant species within the medium-sized wild cat genus '' Lynx''. Native to North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the c ...
s (''Lynx rufus''),
domestic cats The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the d ...
(''Felis catus''),
coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...
s (''Canis latrans''), and foxes (''
Vulpes vulpes The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...
'' and '' Urocyon cinereoargenteus''). Deer mice are also parasitized by ''
Cuterebra fontinella ''Cuterebra'', or rodent bots, is a genus of Botfly, bot flies that attack rodents and similar animals. Etymology The genus name ''Cuterebra'' is a blend of the Latin words ''cutis'' 'skin' and ''terebra'' 'borer' with apparent shortening of exp ...
''.


Diet

Deer mice are omnivorous; their main dietary items usually include seeds, fruit,
arthropods Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...
, leaves, and
fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
; fungi have the least amount of intake. Throughout the year, the deer mouse will change its eating habits to reflect what is available. During winter months, arthropods compose of one-fifth of its food. These include spiders, caterpillars, and heteropterans. During the spring months, seeds become available to eat, along with insects, which are consumed in large quantities. Leaves are also found in the stomachs of deer mice in the spring seasons. During summer months, the mouse consumes seeds and fruit. During the fall season, the deer mouse will slowly change its eating habits to resemble the winter's diet.


References

*


External links


Description of speciesAdditional information on speciesStudying the homing ability of deer mice.
(available on sci-hub).

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q649836 Peromyscus Rodents of the United States Rodents of Canada Storage pests Least concern biota of North America Least concern biota of the United States Mammals described in 1845 Taxa named by Johann Andreas Wagner