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Peromyscus maniculatusdeer mouse

By Andrew Bunker

Ge­o­graphic Range

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is a North Amer­i­can species. It is dis­trib­uted from the north­ern tree line in Alaska and Canada south­ward to cen­tral Mex­ico. It is ab­sent from the south­east­ern United States and some coastal areas of Mex­ico within this range (Baker 1983).

Habi­tat

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus oc­cu­pies many dif­fer­ent eco­log­i­cal zones through­out its range. Deer mice can be found in alpine habi­tats, north­ern bo­real for­est, desert, grass­land, brush­land, agri­cul­tural fields, south­ern mon­tane wood­land, and arid upper trop­i­cal habi­tats. Also, P. man­ic­u­la­tus is found on bo­real, tem­per­ate, and trop­i­cal is­lands. How­ever, its most com­mon habi­tats are prairies, bushy areas, and wood­lands (King 1968).

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus has a small body size, no longer than that of a house mouse. It is typ­i­cally 119 to 222 mm long and weighs be­tween 10 and 24 grams. Tail length is vari­able in dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tions and ranges from 45 mm to 105 mm (Baker 1983). Wood­land forms are typ­i­cally larger and have larger tails and feet than prairie forms (LTER 1995). Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus has a round and slen­der body. The head has a pointed nose with large, black, beady eyes. The ears are large and have lit­tle fur cov­er­ing them. The vib­ris­sae are long and promi­nent. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus has shorter fore­limbs than hind limbs (Baker 1983).

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is gray­ish to red­dish brown with white un­der­parts. The fur is short, soft, and dense. The finely-haired tail is bi­col­ored, the darker top half and the lighter bot­tom sharply dif­fer­en­ti­ated. This dif­fers from the other species of Per­omyscus (Per­omyscus leu­co­pus), in which the sep­a­ra­tion of the two col­ors is less dis­tinct. There are other char­ac­ter­is­tics that help dis­tin­guish P. man­ic­u­la­tus from the sim­i­lar P. leu­co­pus. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus gen­er­ally has hind feet that are 22 mm or less, while P. leu­co­pus usu­ally has hind feet 22 mm or more. Also, Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is more richly col­ored with a brown­ish or tawny pelage, whereas P. leu­co­pus tends to be more pink­ish-buff or gray­ish, with scat­tered dark hairs (LTER 1995). These char­ac­ter­is­tics vary ge­o­graph­i­cally, how­ever, and in some areas the two species are ex­tremely dif­fi­cult to dis­tin­guish based on ex­ter­nal mor­phol­ogy.

Like most murids, Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus has a den­tal for­mula of 1/1 0/0 0/0 3/3. Its mo­lars are low-crowned and cus­p­i­date. The third upper molar is less wide than the first two, while that of Per­omyscus leu­co­pus is ap­prox­i­mately as wide as the first two (Baker 1983).

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • Range mass
    10 to 24 g
    0.35 to 0.85 oz
  • Range length
    119 to 222 mm
    4.69 to 8.74 in
  • Average basal metabolic rate
    0.219 W
    AnAge

Re­pro­duc­tion

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is polyg­y­nous (Kirk­land and Layne 1989).

Fe­male Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus are sea­son­ally polye­strous with an es­trous cycle of about five days. In the wild, re­pro­duc­tion may not occur dur­ing win­ter or other un­fa­vor­able sea­sons (LTER 1998). Fe­males ex­hibit post-par­tum es­trus and are able to be­come preg­nant shortly after giv­ing birth (Baker 1983). The ges­ta­tion pe­riod of a non­lac­tat­ing fe­male deer mouse lasts from 22.4 to 25.5 days and 24.1 to 30.6 days in a lac­tat­ing fe­male (Kirk­land and Layne 1989). Lit­ter size is highly vari­able be­tween pop­u­la­tions. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus may have lit­ters con­tain­ing from one to eleven young with typ­i­cal lit­ters con­tain­ing four, five, or six in­di­vid­u­als (Baker 1983). Lit­ter size in­creases with each birth until the fifth or sixth lit­ter and de­creases there­after (LTER 1998).

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is very al­tri­cial at birth but de­vel­ops quickly. At birth, the deer mouse has a mass of about 1.5 g. The young are born hair­less with wrin­kled, pink skin, closed eyes, and folded over ear pin­nae. Ju­ve­nile hair be­gins to de­velop on the sec­ond day after birth. On the third day, the pin­nae un­fold with the ear canal open­ing on the tenth day. Eyes open on the fif­teenth day, and the young are weaned be­tween day 25 and 35.

Con­cep­tion can occur as early as 35 days, but the first es­trus typ­i­cally oc­curs around 49 days (King 1968).

  • Breeding interval
    Deer mice breed every three to four weeks during the warmer months and less frequently during the winter.
  • Breeding season
    Deer mice breed year round, but most breeding occurs during the warmer months.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 11
  • Average number of offspring
    4 to 6
  • Average number of offspring
    5
    AnAge
  • Range gestation period
    22.4 to 30.6 days
  • Range weaning age
    25 to 35 days
  • Average time to independence
    35 days
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    35 (low) days
  • Average age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    49 days

While nurs­ing, the mother car­ries her young cling­ing to her nip­ples or one at a time in her mouth (Baker 1983). Once weaned, the young usu­ally leave the nest and be­come in­de­pen­dent of their mother, al­though some­times the mother will tol­er­ate their pres­ence for longer pe­ri­ods. Often when the mother has a sec­ond lit­ter, she forces the first lit­ter out of the nest (King 1968).

  • Parental Investment
  • altricial
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-independence
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

In cap­tiv­ity, P. man­ic­u­la­tus can live as long as eight years. How­ever, in the wild, life ex­pectancy is much shorter, usu­ally less than a year (Baker 1983).

Be­hav­ior

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is pri­mar­ily a noc­tur­nal species. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus spends most of its time on the ground but it is also an adept climber. Ac­tiv­ity cen­ters around a nest and food cache. In ter­res­trial prairie sub­species, a nest is con­structed just below ground level in its own bur­row or one aban­doned by an­other an­i­mal. For­est dwelling sub­species con­struct nests near the ground in stumps, logs, brush piles, tree cav­i­ties, re­con­structed bird nests, tree bark, or even cot­tages or out­build­ings. Nests are made of rounded masses of veg­etable mat­ter (as much as 100 mm in di­am­e­ter) (Baker 1983).

A ma­ture male, a few ma­ture fe­males, and sev­eral young con­sti­tute the basic so­cial unit of the deer mouse. In the win­ter, groups of ten in­di­vid­u­als or more of mixed sexes and ages may hud­dle to­gether in nests to con­serve heat. Also dur­ing win­ter, P. man­ic­u­la­tus may enter a daily tor­por to re­duce body tem­per­a­ture and con­serve en­ergy (Baker 1983).

  • Range territory size
    242 to 3000 m^2

Home Range

Home ranges of P. man­ic­u­la­tus range from 242 square me­ters to 3000 square me­ters. Home ranges of males are larger than fe­males and show more over­lap. Males use their home ranges for both ac­cess to feed­ing and nest­ing and also to re­pro­duc­tive fe­males. Fe­males use their home ranges for feed­ing, nest­ing, and rear­ing young.

Re­pro­duc­tive fe­males are more ag­gres­sive in ter­ri­tory de­fense than males, and their ter­ri­to­ries over­lap less, sug­gest­ing that they have a greater in­vest­ment in ter­ri­tory de­fense than males. In­trud­ing con­specifics will com­mit in­fan­ti­cide of young un­at­tended by a fe­male (Kirk­land and Layne 1989).

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Deer mice per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment through keen senses of hear­ing, touch, smell, and vi­sion. They com­mu­ni­cate using tac­tile, vi­sual, chem­i­cal, and au­di­tory sig­nals. They groom one an­other, pos­ture, emit pheromones, mark their ter­ri­to­ries with scent, and make a va­ri­ety of squeaky vo­cal­iza­tions. Some­times when dis­turbed they drum their front paws rapidly up and down against a hard sur­face; this may serve as a warn­ing sig­nal to other deer mice.

Food Habits

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is om­niv­o­rous. It eats a wide va­ri­ety of plant and an­i­mal mat­ter de­pend­ing on what is avail­able, in­clud­ing in­sects and other in­ver­te­brates, seeds, fruits, flow­ers, nuts, and other plant prod­ucts. Deer mice some­times eat their own feces (co­prophagy). In cooler cli­mates, deer mice cache food in se­cret gra­naries dur­ing the au­tumn months (Baker 1983).

  • Animal Foods
  • insects
  • terrestrial non-insect arthropods
  • Plant Foods
  • seeds, grains, and nuts
  • fruit
  • flowers

Pre­da­tion

Deer mice are a sta­ple in the diet of a wide va­ri­ety of an­i­mals. Night-hunt­ing preda­tors, in­clud­ing snakes, owls, and var­i­ous car­niv­o­rous mam­mals, are their biggest threat.

  • Anti-predator Adaptations
  • cryptic

Ecosys­tem Roles

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus helps dis­perse the seeds of a num­ber of species of plants, and also the spores of my­c­or­rhizal fungi. In ad­di­tion, deer mice are a food source for a wide va­ri­ety of an­i­mals at higher trophic lev­els.

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus pro­vides food for a num­ber of car­ni­vores, some of which are eco­nom­i­cally valu­able fur-bear­ing mam­mals. Also, deer mice con­sume some in­sects that are con­sid­ered pests (Baker 1983).

  • Positive Impacts
  • controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Deer mice con­sume seeds of val­ued for­est trees, some­times pre­vent­ing re­growth. In ad­di­tion, P. man­ic­u­la­tus can be de­struc­tive by raid­ing stored grains and other food sup­plies, gath­er­ing lit­ter, and gnaw­ing (Baker 1983). Fi­nally, P. man­ic­u­la­tus is a host for strain of han­tavirus called Sin Nom­bre virus (also called Four Cor­ners or Muerto Canyon virus). This virus, which can be con­tracted by hu­mans from deer mice, causes an often fatal dis­ease termed han­tavirus pul­monary syn­drome (Rowe et al. 1995).

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans
    • carries human disease
  • crop pest
  • household pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus is an abun­dant species, often among the most abun­dant mouse species of cer­tain areas (LTER 1998). Den­si­ties can reach 11 mice per acre (Baker 1983). Quan­tity and qual­ity of foods, avail­abil­ity of water, num­ber and dis­tri­b­u­tion of nest sites, ar­chi­tec­ture of liv­ing and dead veg­e­ta­tion, and depth and den­sity of lit­ter are some eco­log­i­cal fac­tors pro­posed to af­fect the den­sity of P. man­ic­u­la­tus. How­ever, only the avail­abil­ity of food has been stud­ied in enough de­tail to show it has an ef­fect on pop­u­la­tion den­sity (Kirk­land and Layne 1989).

Other Com­ments

In Michi­gan, there are three dis­tinct sub­species of deer mice. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus man­ic­u­la­tus is found only on Isle Royale. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus gra­cilis is found in forests of the north­ern Lower Penin­sula and the Upper Penin­sula, and Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus bairdii is found in open areas (prefer­ably plowed or cul­ti­vated fields, early stages of grass­lands, or along lake shores) of the Lower Penin­sula and the south­west­ern Upper Penin­sula. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus gra­cilis and P. m. bairdii dif­fer quite no­tice­ably. Per­omyscus man­ic­u­la­tus gra­cilis has a longer tail, ears, skull, and hind foot than P. m. bairdii. It is in­ter­est­ing that de­spite hav­ing sym­patric ranges these sub­species do not in­ter­breed. One pos­si­ble ex­pla­na­tion for this is the dif­fer­ence in habi­tat pref­er­ence of the two species, lim­it­ing their con­tact (Baker 1983).

Con­trib­u­tors

Al­li­son Poor (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

An­drew Bunker (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Nearctic

living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.

World Map

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

altricial

young are born in a relatively underdeveloped state; they are unable to feed or care for themselves or locomote independently for a period of time after birth/hatching. In birds, naked and helpless after hatching.

arboreal

Referring to an animal that lives in trees; tree-climbing.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

cryptic

having markings, coloration, shapes, or other features that cause an animal to be camouflaged in its natural environment; being difficult to see or otherwise detect.

desert or dunes

in deserts low (less than 30 cm per year) and unpredictable rainfall results in landscapes dominated by plants and animals adapted to aridity. Vegetation is typically sparse, though spectacular blooms may occur following rain. Deserts can be cold or warm and daily temperates typically fluctuate. In dune areas vegetation is also sparse and conditions are dry. This is because sand does not hold water well so little is available to plants. In dunes near seas and oceans this is compounded by the influence of salt in the air and soil. Salt limits the ability of plants to take up water through their roots.

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

heterothermic

having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

omnivore

an animal that mainly eats all kinds of things, including plants and animals

pheromones

chemicals released into air or water that are detected by and responded to by other animals of the same species

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

scent marks

communicates by producing scents from special gland(s) and placing them on a surface whether others can smell or taste them

scrub forest

scrub forests develop in areas that experience dry seasons.

sedentary

remains in the same area

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

solitary

lives alone

stores or caches food

places a food item in a special place to be eaten later. Also called "hoarding"

suburban

living in residential areas on the outskirts of large cities or towns.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

temperate

that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

territorial

defends an area within the home range, occupied by a single animals or group of animals of the same species and held through overt defense, display, or advertisement

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

year-round breeding

breeding takes place throughout the year

Ref­er­ences

Baker, R. H. 1983. Michi­gan Mam­mals. Wayne State Uni­verisity, De­troit, Michi­gan.

King, J. A. 1968. Bi­ol­ogy of Per­omyscus (Ro­den­tia). First Edi­tion. The Amer­i­can So­ci­ety of Mam­mal­o­gists, Still­wa­ter, Ok­la­homa.

Kirk­land, G. L. and Layne, J. N. 1989. Ad­vances in the Study of Per­omyscus (Ro­den­tia). Texas Tech Uni­ver­sity Press, Lub­bock, Texas.

LTER (Sevil­leta Long-Term Eco­log­i­cal Re­search Pro­ject). 1998. Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico. http://​sevilleta.​unm.​edu/​data/​species/​mammal/​profile/​deer-mouse.​html

Rowe, J. E., St. Jeor, S. C., Riolo, J., Otte­son, E. W., Mon­roe, M. C., Hen­der­son, W. W., Ksi­azek, T. G., Rollin, P. E., and Nichol, S. T. 1995. Co­ex­is­tence of sev­eral novel han­taviruses in ro­dents in­dige­nous to North Amer­ica. Vi­rol­ogy 213 (1): 122-130.

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Classification

Classification

  • Kingdom Animalia animals
  • Phylum Chordata chordates
  • Subphylum Vertebrata vertebrates
  • Class Mammalia mammals
  • Order Rodentia rodents
  • Family Cricetidae New World rats and mice, voles, hamsters, and relatives
  • Genus Peromyscus deer mice and white-footed mice
  • Species Peromyscus maniculatus deer mouse