What do they look like?

White-footed mice range from 150 to 205 mm in total length, with their tail making up about one-third of that length. They weight from 15 to 25 grams. The fur on their back ranges from light brown to a more reddish brown, while the fur on their stomach and feet is white, their tails tend to be darker on the top and lighter on the bottom.

Where in the world do they live?

White-footed mice are native only to the Nearctic region. They are found from the Atlantic coast of North America as far north as Nova Scotia, west to Montana and south into southern Mexico. They do not occur west of the Rocky Mountains or the Sierra Madre, in Florida, or on the coastal plains of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.

What kind of habitat do they need?

White-footed mice are most often found at low to mid-elevations throughout their range and especially in warm, dry forests. They occur in a variety of habitats, though, from higher elevation forests to semi-desert. This adaptability has meant that they do well in suburban and agricultural settings as well. White-footed mice are usually the most abundant rodent in mixed forests of eastern North America. They make their nests in places that are warm and dry, for example, a hollow tree or an empty bird's nest.

How do they reproduce?

Males have home ranges that overlap with multiple females, providing access to multiple mating opportunities. Pups in a single litter often have different fathers.

White-footed mice have different breeding seasons depending on where they live. In the northern parts of their range they breed in spring and late summer, in southern parts of their range they can breed year round. Females can begin to have babies when they are 44 days old. Females are pregnant for 21 to 28 days and have litters of 2 to 9 babies.

Young are born blind, naked, and helpless. Their eyes open at about 12 days old and their ears open at about 10 days old. Females care for and nurse their young in the nest until they are weaned. Soon after that the young disperse from their mother's range. If the young or the nest are endangered, female white-footed mice will carry their young one at a time to a safer location.

How long do they live?

Most white-footed mice live for one year in the wild. This means that there is an almost complete replacement of all mice in the population from one year to the next. Most mortality occurs in the spring and early summer.

How do they behave?

Home Range

Females are territorial during the breeding season. Males do not care for their young. The home ranges of males overlap with those of the females.

How do they communicate with each other?

White-footed mice have keen eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell. They use their vibrissae (whiskers) as touch receptors. A distinctive behavior of white-footed mice is drumming on a hollow reed or a dry leaf with their front paws. This produces a long musical buzzing. It is unclear why white-footed mice do this.

What do they eat?

White-footed mice are omnivorous. They mostly eat seeds, berries, nuts, insects, grains, fruits, and fungi. In order to prepare for the winter, white-footed mice gather and store seeds and nuts in the fall.

What eats them and how do they avoid being eaten?

White-footed mice are active primarily at night and are secretive and alert, thus avoiding many predators. They are abundant in many habitats and are the major diet item of many small predators.

What roles do they have in the ecosystem?

White-footed mice are often abundant where they occur and are important as prey items for many small predators.

Do they cause problems?

White-footed mice play a role in the transmission of Lyme disease. They carry the bacteria that causes the disease and pass it to larval deer ticks when they are bitten. These deer ticks can then pass the disease to humans or other mammals. They also may be carriers of hantavirus, or Four Corners disease, through their feces. Where they are abundant white-footed mice may prevent the growth of trees such as acorns and pines, whose seeds they eat.

How do they interact with us?

White-footed mice eat various types of fungi and help to disperse the spores of these fungi through their droppings. This helps to spread spores of fungi, such as mycorhizzal fungi, which help trees to gain nutrients through their roots. White footed mice may also eat harmful insect pests, such as gypsy moths. White-footed mice are not significant crop pests.

Are they endangered?

White-footed mice are not endangered or threatened. They are common and abundant.

Some more information...

White footed mice have a very good sense of direction. In experiments in which they were captured and let go 2 miles away, they found their way back to where they were captured.

Contributors

Shaina Aguilar (author), University of Michigan: July, 2002.

Tanya Dewey (editor), Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

References

Sevilleta Long-Term Ecological Research Project. 1995. http://sevilleta.unm.edu/animal/mammal/white-footed_mouse.html

Collier's Encyclopedia. Vol 8. " deer mouse." 1993. N.Y.

Lackey, James Alden; Huckaby, David G.; Ormiston, Brian G. Mammalian Species. "Peromyscus leucopus." No. 247, pp. 1-10. December 13, 1985. The American Society of Mammalogists.

"Animal Life History Database" (On-line).