I have a question for all of you North American natives (or longtime dwellers). You see, where I come from, there are lots and lots of ginormous bugs and interesting reptiles, but not so many furry woodland-type critters.
As a result, I am endlessly fascinated by the ones that populate my neighborhood--squirrels, rabbits, the occasional raccoon, the possum I almost ran over, etc. But I came across a critter yesterday that I couldn't identify. So here's the question:
What is black and furry, has four legs but no tail, and is about the size of a big male B6 mouse but with a flatter body?
A. The critter that ran into Mad Hatter's garage as she was pulling in yesterday
B. The critter that hid so Mad Hatter couldn't find it and chase it out
C. The critter that Dormouse may try to eat
D. The critter that may end up dying and rotting in Mad Hatter's garage
E. All of the above
Seriously, what did I let into my garage and what are the chances it will die and rot in there?
I had a baby!
6 hours ago
16 comments:
I love option C! I have a German Shepherd, so that is VERY probable at my house!
I really like your blog, sometimes it helps invoke a smile on an otherwise abysmal day!
Any tips for a blogger newbie?
Pic! PIc!
A vole or mole, maybe? (I'm sorry, I'm not in bio-science, so I don't know bred mouse sizes, but voles are about the size of or slightly smaller than wild mice, and as I remember, they don't have tails.)
If you leave your garage open & keep Dormouse inside, I'm sure the animal will be more than happy to leave, though. It'll probably be happy to leave without either of those conditions, too.
I like your blog too, I'm just not good at leaving comments usually.
Uhhh.....a black6 whose tail has been cut off and whose body has been mashed somewhat?
Lots of voles look kinda, but not quite, like mice, so that would be a good bet--but the tailless bit is really odd.
We still argue about the species ID of a couple of critters our cat has nabbed.
Muppet?
how bout a baby black gerbil with no tail???? Chances? nope...prolly not.
I would guess a mole. Not a vole -- those absolutely have tails, and look very much like mice.
"Big male B6 mouse"
I was following until the B6.... Biologists... ;)
I have certainly seen my share of teeny wild critters that have been mangled by slightly larger wild critters, so it could certainly be a vole sans tail, or perhaps with blunted tail. Voles are on average smaller than B6 mice though, especially if you're calling it a "big male" B6 mouse. Did it run or hop a little bit? I've also seen baby bunnies that were really teeny, so that's also a (more remote) possibility.
There is a pretty decent chance that your pup is gonna eat it, whatever it may be.
A. Wray--Thanks! I hope today wasn't one of those abysmal days, though. As for tips, hmm...I'm not really sure. I started blogging largely to amuse myself but eventually people started reading, in a sort of "if you build it, they will come" kind of way. But I will say that blogging became a lot more fun once I made some blog friends!
Anonymous--Sadly, it vanished from view too quickly for me to get a picture. And I was a bit preoccupied trying not to run it over!
Ceresina--I looked up pics of voles and moles on google, and it definitely could've been a mole if moles are that small. I found a website that said something about moles being the size of chipmunks. Unfortunately, that doesn't help me much since the only chipmunks I've seen are Alvin and his pals. :-) Thanks, and I lurk on a lot of blogs too!
Dr. J--For the record, I have never cut the tail off one of my B6 mice or mashed its body. Just wanted to make that clear! I suppose the critter could've had a tail and I just didn't see it. So what do you do with the critters your cat catches?
Cath--Hah! By the way, have you seen BikeMonkey's post? Looks like we're escalating the Muppet dust-up! :-)
Rhea--Perhaps I can put an exercise wheel out in the garage for it to make it feel more at home? :-)
EtBr--The pictures of moles I found look pretty close. Does this mean we have mole tunnels underneath our yard?
Academic--A full description of a B6 mouse is here if you're interested!
DGT--Nope, no hopping...just scurrying. We once found a nest full of tiny baby rabbits in our backyard and I was astonished at how small they were! But this critter didn't look like a rabbit. And I'm afraid you may be right about Dormouse eating it...she eats everything else, so why not mystery critter?
It could mean that you have a mole tunnel underneath your yard. For the most part, moles are totally harmless (though slightly ugly to look at). My parents' house has been frequented by lots of moles under the yard -- but my father is way too animal friendly to EVER do anything about it from a mole-trapping/pesticide/animal removal point of view, so they just keep on digging away happily under the bushes where you can't see the tunnels anyway. We've never had one in the house (just a few in the garage on occasion, and they've never died in there), and it's never caused a problem. Once, our mailman saw one under the bushes next to our front porch and was on his hands and knees inspecting it and startled my mother when she looked out and saw a man crawling around on our porch, but that's about it!
I would have said a chipmunk except that you said that it was black...the chipmunks that I've seen running around are about the right size and have little stubby tails (although the pictures online that I went and looked at showed them with longer tails than I remember)
so, if you found a website that said that moles were the size of chipmunks and moles are black then I'd go with mole.
I'd guess vole or shrew before mole. If it were a mole you probably would have noticed some weird front legs/claws/paws/ and possibly a really pointy face. Some voles also have very short tails (only 3-5cm) and look much more like mice than most moles.
Either way, hopefully it will find its way home before Dormouse finds it!
Yeah, I have no desire to see mangled bl/6 mice.. I get enough of that at work! I hope you've managed to rid your house of the invader or at least determine the true identity of the enemy.
Thanks for the advice (I changed my name from A. Wray to the more anonymous Science Bear after my first post).
EtBr--Well, our yard is in a pretty sad condition already, so having a few moles certainly isn't going to be a problem for us! :-)
Neurostudent--Yep, it was definitely black. I wish I'd gotten a better look, though. I'll have to keep an eye out in case another one appears.
Albatross--I haven't seen Dormouse eating any unidentified objects, and there's no stench in our garage, so I'm guessing the little critter managed to escape. :-)
Science Bear--You're welcome. It's always nice to have more new bloggers join the community!
Post a Comment