Peromyscus leucopus

[necturus]

My brother and I visited my father this weekend. He keeps a stash of peanuts which he gives to his "clientele": squirrels, chipmunks, blue jays, and the occasional crow, who show up from time to time on his back porch. As we sat in the living room , my brother noticed something dart out of the fireplace and disappear behind the furniture. When it shortly returned to the fireplace dragging a peanut, it proved to be a white-footed mouse, Peromyscus leucopus. We watched with some amusement as it tried to maneuver the peanut through the grill in front of the fireplace, eventually, to our surprise, succeeding. My father says this native mouse has displaced the Eurasian house mouse, Mus musculus, at least in his part of New York State, for reasons that are not clear. The house mouse, which is the mouse you are most likely to find infesting your house, got to North America by stowing away on ships from Europe and then spread across the continent with the European colonists; it has always been better adapted to living in human houses than its native rivals. But now it seems something has changed, and the natives are turning the tables on the invaders.