Posted on 10/01/2025 1:11:47 PM PDT by Red Badger
They might be small but grasshopper mice are top level carnivores.
AWWWWOOOOOO!
Image Credit: Minden Pictures/Alamy
You might think that only werewolves howl at the Moon, but this spooky season, we’re bringing you another creature with a lot to say at nighttime. Meet the grasshopper mouse; it might be small, but it has one heck of a voice.
There are three species of grasshopper mouse that are closely related to deer mice: the northern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster), the southern grasshopper mouse (O. torridus), and Mearns’ grasshopper mouse (O. arenicola).
The southern grasshopper mouse is found in northern Mexico and the southwest of the United States, including the Sonoran Desert. It measures roughly 15 centimeters (5.9 inches) from the tip of its nose to its tail and weighs somewhere between 20-50 grams (>0.1 pounds). Oh, and it howls like a wolf.
VIDEOS AT LINK.................
Despite being literally mouse-sized, these diminutive little rodents are actually top-level carnivores and voracious predators and will attack pretty much anything smaller than they are for food. While they have been recorded eating some plant material, the majority of their diet is grasshoppers, scorpions, and other arthropods. Their Latin name, Onychomys, means “clawed mouse” as their paws and even fingernails are specially adapted to hold onto slippery, struggling prey. Compared to deer mice, they even have a stronger bite force for killing their dinner.
The Sonoran Desert is home to more venomous creatures than anywhere else in the United States. One of these species is the Arizona bark scorpion, which is highly venomous and can be fatal to humans. The grasshopper mouse survives because it has a special method of shutting down the pain signal to the brain when the venom is ingested, using sodium channels.
As well as its venom-defying skills, the grasshopper mouse is actually famous for howling at the Moon. Both males and females stand on their hind legs, point their noses in the air, and let out a very high-pitched noise in the range of 9-14 Hertz that can be heard for 100 meters (330 feet). Often, the howl precedes a kill, and though its function is not known for sure, it is thought to be a way for the mouse to mark its territory.
The howl is produced in the same way wolves howl – and humans speak – too. A 2017 study found that they produce two types of vocalizations. One is a classic whistle-like mechanism used by other rodents and the other is a unique tissue vibration induced by airflow, like humans and wolves.
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In before the Peter Sellers movie.
Speaking of howling last night the English Shepherd was howling to the sound of sirens in the distance. First time.
“A very high-pitched noise in the range of 9-14 Hertz.”
Megahertz? 9-14 Hertz is too low to be audible. And I’m leaving the OJ Simpson rent-a-car joke unsaid.
Megahertz? Damn those radio controlled mice!
Try Kilohertz.
That sort of sounded like a higher pitched version of humpback whale song.
I recall the naturalist and writer Sally Carrighar writing in one of her books many years ago that some people can actually hear the deer mouse naturally.
Absolutely fascinating. Thanks for posting.
LOL, oops.
I couldn’t hear the pitch, but my dogs just went crazy lol
The Weremouse (1941)
“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night,
may become a mouse when the mousebane blooms and the autumn moon is bright.”
Howl by Allen Ginsberg
(updated)
I saw the best minds of my mouse generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry cheese fix,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly rodent connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night...
OJ Simpson’s e-mail:
slash, slash, backslash, escape.
mark
“a very high-pitched noise in the range of 9-14 Hertz”
Maybe they mean kilohertz.
If I recall it used to be that the capital H in the word Hertz indicated Mega and the lower case h indicating the lower range but I see so many people violating this use that I wonder if anyone even remembers it.
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