Mammals of the WorldHouse Mouse
Mus musculus
- Order
- Rodentia
- Family
- Muridae
- Genus
- Mus
- IUCN status
- LC
- Distribution
- Ireland|United Kingdom|Portugal|Spain|France|Netherlands|Belgium|Luxembourg|Switzerland|Liechtenstein|Italy|Malta|Austria|Germany|Denmark|Czech Republic|Slovenia|Slovakia|Hungary|Croatia|Bosnia and Herzegovina|Serbia|Kosovo|Montenegro|Albania|North Macedonia|Greece|Bulgaria|Romania|Moldova|Ukraine|Poland|Belarus|Lithuania|Latvia|Estonia|Norway|Sweden|Finland|Russia|Morocco|Algeria|Tunisia|Libya|Egypt|Sudan|Eritrea|Ethiopia|Djibouti|Georgia|Armenia|Azerbaijan|Turkey|Cyprus|Syria|Lebanon|Israel|Palestine|Jordan|Saudi Arabia|Yemen|Oman|United Arab Emirates|Qatar|Bahrain|Kuwait|Iraq|Iran|Turkmenistan|Uzbekistan|Kazakhstan|Kyrgyzstan|Tajikistan|Afghanistan|Pakistan|India|Nepal|Sri Lanka|Bangladesh|Bhutan|Mongolia|China|Japan|Myanmar|Thailand|Vietnam|Laos|Cambodia|Malaysia
- Realm
- Palearctic|Afrotropic|Indomalaya
About this species
- Size
- Body 7.5–10cm; tail 5–10cm
- Weight
- 11–30g
- Diet
- Mainly plant matter; omnivorous
- Habitat
- Hidden places near food sources, including buildings
The house mouse is a small rodent with a pointed snout, large rounded ears and a long, almost hairless tail. The body is 7.5–10 cm long with a 5–10 cm tail, and it typically weighs 11–30 g. In the wild the colour ranges from grey and light brown to black, the individual hairs being agouti-coloured. It is one of the most abundant species of its genus, and has benefited so much from living alongside people that truly wild populations are less common than those near human activity (Wikipedia, general species account).
House mice are mostly crepuscular or nocturnal and avoid bright light. They live in a wide variety of hidden places near food sources and build nests from soft materials. They are territorial, with one dominant male usually living with several females and young. They feed mainly on plant matter but are omnivorous. When eating, fighting or orienting, they rear up on the hind legs with support from the tail, a behaviour called tripoding (Wikipedia, general species account).
Description: Wildlife of Malaysia guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)