White Footed Mouse family have a luxury house in an underground water meter high in the Great Smoky Mountains. Cute little fellow - if you watch closely you'll see him rub noses with Mrs Mouse who I'm pretty sure has babies in the downy nest. I gave them a little bird seed and left them undisturbed - will keep an eye on them.
Strictly nocturnal, this hyperactive mouse lives in the deep forest and has found food left for the Flying Squirrels and makes fast dashes for food when the squirrels aren't there - rarely lingering in the open as it is on the low end of the food chain. The exact species of mouse is unclear as even generic house mice live in forests. The nighttime sounds of the forest echo in the background.
Lucky break while staking out Flying Squirrels I apparently captured the only known video on the "Web" or at least in the Google World of a Woodland Jumping Mouse in the wild. Of course the individual mice are very small in this night-vision video captured using a Bushnell HD Trail Cam, but what one can see - are the amazing jumps and that of course, is what is the key attribute of this species. Able to jump well over several meters in a single bound, the Woodland Jumping Mouse is an amazing member of the rodent family, rarely, if ever, filmed at night in its natural environment.
In the video they can be seen making easy jumps of 5 to 6 feet. They do very little "walking". Nocturnal, this wild and crazy group of jumping mice live at nearly 4000 feet elevation in an Eastern Hemlock grove on the banks of a small stream in the Great Smoky Mountains - a choice habitat for them. There is leftover seed on the ground from daytime feeding of birds that they are after. A Flying Squirrel is also in the mix - you will note how the jump of the squirrel is not even comparable. The tails of the Woodland Jumping Mice are much longer than their bodies and their rear feet are large. They are more often found in eastern Canada, but populations remain at the higher elevations of the southern Appalachians. They apparently relish the colder winters as they are hibernators and only active during the warmer months. Here are some links to more information: http://www.dnr.sc.gov/cwcs/pdf/woodlandjumpingmousem.pdf http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=207
A Speedy Vole, Unique Mouse or the elusive Pygmy Shrew?
Fast little mammal likes bird seed and is about 3" long total from nose to tail
Visiting the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina I was feeding birds by laying some seed on a flat rock. While watching the birds from a distance I caught a glimpse of this diminutive critter as a blur picking up exactly one piece of bird seed at a time from the rock and jumping back into a hole. It was too fast to note any details so I set up a camera trap and let it run for 15 minutes and caught the little thing going back and forth 4 times. Even with the video slowed to 1/8 normal speed it's a blur. I though mole at first and still don't know for sure what it is. There is a great information sheet on the three species of moles east of the Rockies from NC State. A screen grab shows it is definitely not mole-like - no big webbed front feet, in fact the feet are kind of dainty - it's apparently omnivorous and too small - about 3" form nose to tail. It is closer to a mouse in size , but doesn't exactly look like any mouse I know and is pretty small for a Vole. Its hole was about the size of a quarter and it does not tunnel extensively, rather there is a lair under very heavy leaf litter on the edge of landscape fabric held by the large stone at 3,600 feet elevation. Probably a odd coincidence that I put bird seed right next to its house. You would think it would be easy to ID - What is it? Have any thoughts pass them on. Cute little thing though - and incredibly fast and athletic - I love the way it dives into the hole as a blur even in slow motion. Late breaking thought - I didn't consider shrew as it seemed way too small for a shrew without an extremely pronounced snout, but I just found out there is a thing called an "American Pygmy Shrew" known to live in these parts and this little thing shares some of the characteristics - notably the size and feet and a less pronounced pointed nose compared to the typical shrew. The thing is just to darn fast - I'll have to go through the video frame by frame.
