Desert pocket mouse
Encyclopedia
The desert pocket mouse (Chaetodipus penicillatus) is a North American species of heteromyid
rodent
found in the southwestern United States
and Mexico
. True to its common name, the desert pocket mouse prefers sandy, sparsely vegetated desert
. Its primary diet is seed
s, making it a granivore. Like other pocket mice, the desert pocket mouse has fur-lined cheek pouches on the outside of its mouth, which it uses to gather the seeds it finds. It also stores seeds in the underground burrows where it lives. They have been known to eat mainly mesquite seeds and palo verde seeds. They have two large teeth on each jaw located in the front of the mouth called incisors. They will use these to break through hard soil digging for seeds. Desert pocket mice are nocturnal, and some of them hibernate in burrows during the winter. They are very small, about the size of a grown man's thumb.
The mouse's breeding season is in the spring; adult females can give birth to one or more litters of two to five young during the spring and summer. Gestation lasts on average of 23 days. Incisors appear 9 days after birth, eyes open on day 14, and ears open no sooner than day 14. Population has a high turnover rate as high as 95%.
Heteromyidae
The family of rodents that include kangaroo rats, kangaroo mice and rock pocket mice is the Heteromyidae family. Most heteromyids live in complex burrows within the deserts and grasslands of western North America, though species within the Heteromys and Liomys genera are also found in forests and...
rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
found in the southwestern United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. True to its common name, the desert pocket mouse prefers sandy, sparsely vegetated desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
. Its primary diet is seed
Seed
A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...
s, making it a granivore. Like other pocket mice, the desert pocket mouse has fur-lined cheek pouches on the outside of its mouth, which it uses to gather the seeds it finds. It also stores seeds in the underground burrows where it lives. They have been known to eat mainly mesquite seeds and palo verde seeds. They have two large teeth on each jaw located in the front of the mouth called incisors. They will use these to break through hard soil digging for seeds. Desert pocket mice are nocturnal, and some of them hibernate in burrows during the winter. They are very small, about the size of a grown man's thumb.
The mouse's breeding season is in the spring; adult females can give birth to one or more litters of two to five young during the spring and summer. Gestation lasts on average of 23 days. Incisors appear 9 days after birth, eyes open on day 14, and ears open no sooner than day 14. Population has a high turnover rate as high as 95%.