House mouse

Description

House mice living in the wild reach a snout-vent length of 7 to 11 cm, a tail length of 7 to 10 cm and a weight of about 20 to 25 g. The white mice kept in laboratories and the fancy mice available in the pet shop can become much heavier, 45 to 60 grams are not uncommon. The body is mouse-grey to brown-grey on top, the underpart is somewhat lighter. The tail has clearly visible scale rings and is sparsely hairy.

Adult house mice have longer tails than voles. A vole's tail is shorter than half its torso (from nose to base of tail), a house mouse's tail is longer than half its rump. The incisors of the upper jaw are slightly notched.

There is a similarity to the wood mouse, which also often stays indoors. In wood mice, however, the light underpart is more clearly separated from the darker fur on the upperparts than in house mice. Unlike the house mouse, the wood mouse does not have a notch on the back of the upper incisors.

Habitat

When the house mouse is not living near humans, it mainly inhabits steppes, desert areas and cultivated land. There it digs burrows and builds nests in which it stores its food. 

The text is a translation of an excerpt from Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausmaus). On wikipedia the text is available under a „Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike“ licence. Status: 25 August 2021