Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Pale Kangaroo Mouse
Most Pale Kangaroo Mice live in high, cold desert in Nevada; there is also a small population in eastern California. They look like small kangaroo rats, and like them, can hop on their large hind feet. Learn more about the Microdipodops...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Woodland Jumping Mouse
Woodland Jumping Mice can make spectacular leaps of up to 4 m. They have large feet constructed from long foot and toe bones, and very long ankles, all of which help give them leverage when they push off. Learn more about the Napaeozapus...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: White Throated Woodrat
Woodrats are also known as Packrats, because they cache various manmade objects in their dens. This habit of collecting foreign objects is useful to scientists, who can place numbered sticks throughout an area and later open a den,...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Stephen's Woodrat
Juniper trees are the main source of food, water, and shelter for Stephen's Woodrat. Like Red Tree Voles, which feed mostly on Douglas-fir, the Woodrats are able to feed primarily on conifer leaves, which contain chemical compounds -...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Southern Plains Woodrat
Southern Plains Woodrats are found in places where grasses, creosotebush, mesquite, and cactus grow. Local populations can reach high levels and then crash. Learn more about the Neotoma micropus, more commonly known as a Southern Plains...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Mexican Woodrat
Mexican Woodrats inhabits rocky outcrops, cliffs, and slopes, primarily in montane regions from northern Colorado to Honduras. They eat a wide variety of leaves, seeds, and berries, and sometimes store large amounts of food. Learn more...
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National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Mearn's Grasshopper Mouse
Grasshopper Mice are adapted to a predatory lifestyle. Their molar teeth have high-cusped shearing surfaces for puncturing and slicing, and their biting strength is increased through enlarged muscle attachments on the lower jaw and...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Southern Grasshopper Mouse
Southern Grasshopper Mice are also known as scorpion Mice: they are able to kill (and then eat) scorpions, by first immobilizing the venomous tail and then biting the head. They also prey on beetles that secrete defensive chemicals from...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Northern Grasshopper Mouse
Northern Grasshopper Mice are highly predatory, and their skulls and teeth resemble those of flesh-eating carnivores such as cats and dogs. Their forelimbs, equipped with elongated fingers and claws, have developed great dexterity, so...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: San Joaquin Pocket Mouse
The San Joaquin Pocket Mouse vocalizes with low grunts, growls, and squeals, and communicates aggression by tooth-chattering. This species will consume earthworms and soft-bodied insects, but its diet is mainly very tiny seeds of...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Silky Pocket Mouse
The smallest Perognathus species of all, the Silky Pocket Mouse is among the smallest rodents in North America. These Mice are most active on cool, humid nights, typically foraging for fallen seeds by sifting sand with their tiny...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: White Eared Pocket Mouse
One subspecies of the White-eared Pocket Mouse may be extinct, and the other is extremely rare, consisting of isolated, relict populations near the western Mojave Desert in California. White-eared Pocket Mice are nocturnal and probably...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Plains Pocket Mouse
The color of the Plains Pocket Mouse varies with soil color. The black volcanic sands near Flagstaff, Arizona harbor mice with nearly black fur, and mice with nearly white fur match the white gypsum dunes of New Mexico. Learn more about...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Olive Backed Pocket Mouse
The striking olive dorsum of the Olive-backed Pocket Mouse is set off by a yellowish stripe on the side and a white underside. This is the only species of pocket mouse east of the Rocky Mountains whose range extends well into Canada....
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Merriam's Pocket Mouse
Merriam's Pocket Mice are found in short-grass prairie, desert scrub, and open, arid brushland. They are most common where the vegetation is dense enough to provide them with seeds and some protection from predators, but not so dense...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Texas Mouse
Texas Mice need rocky environments. Where these occur, they are found in cedar glade, juniper-grass, and oak-juniper forests. Learn more about the Peromyscus attwateri, more commonly known as a Texas Mouse, in this easy-to-read species...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: White Ankled Mouse
The White-ankled Mouse is common in rocky areas in both dry and humid regions on the Central Plateau of Mexico and in west and central Texas, southern New Mexico, and Oklahoma. It clearly prefers rocky situations, whether it lives in...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Northern Rock Deermouse
Northern Rock Deermice live in rocky outcrops and among boulders in pinyon-juniper-oak woodlands in the foothills of mountains from Colorado and New Mexico south to Texas and northern Mexico. Populations of the Mice are separated from...
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National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Mesquite Mouse
Mesquite Mice live in dense mesquite thickets known as bosques. Although mesquite is the dominant plant in bosques, other desert plants such as palo-verde, prickly pear, and cholla cacti, and grasses, mix with the mesquite. Learn more...
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National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: White Footed Mouse
The White-footed Mouse has a very wide distribution. It is the most abundant rodent in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests in the eastern United States, and is probably equally abundant near farms. Learn more about the Peromyscus...
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National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Northwestern Deermouse
Keen's Deermouse is the most common deermouse in the Pacific Northwest. It inhabits rainy, mild climate zones at higher elevations than the closely-related Deermouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), and prefers areas where the forest canopy is...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Osgood's Mouse
Osgood's Mouse is a very close relative of the Pinyon Mouse but is larger, and its tail is longer than the head and body. Osgood's Mouse lives in the mountains of southern New Mexico and throughout mountainous central Mexico. Learn more...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Southwestern Myotis
Southwestern myotis live in a variety of southwestern mountain habitats, from desert grasslands up into pine and mixed coniferous forest in the United States, and in desert and grassland in Mexico. These bats and two other myotis...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Northern Long Eared Myotis
Although the northern long-eared myotis is common and widespread, much remains to be learned about its roosting habits, reproduction, and longevity. This bat is known to hibernate in caves and mines and to roost under tree bark. Learn...