Saturday, July 24, 2021

A North American Tail: Fievel Comes East

The Northern Grasshopper Mouse (Onychomys leucogaster) occurs widely throughout west-central North America.  Among its distinctive features are three that are quite unmurine:  it is fiercely carnivorous;  as a "werewolf mouse", it howls at the moon;  and, its tail is surprisingly, well, curtailed.  Here is the Northern Grasshopper Mouse that visited our backyard this past Spring:


Our peripatetic visitor has a surprise that extends well beyond its abbreviated tail;  the eastern extent of its geographic range ends several hundred kilometers west of where I took its portrait.  Welcome to the neighbourhood, pioneering murid.