KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 December 13, 2021 \u2013 A wildlife biologist at the 溏心vlog免费B站 has observed a significant growth in the local population of white-footed mice this year, which could increase Lyme disease risk next year while also providing additional food to area predators and increasing the likelihood that homeowners find mice in their basements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christian Floyd, a 溏心vlog免费B站 teaching professor who studies rodents and other small mammals, said that his mammalogy class set 50 box traps in a forest to the north of the Kingston campus this fall, and in one night they captured and released 24 white-footed mice. They typically capture no more than 6. The students also captured many more images of white-footed mice on trail cameras than usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven in down years, this mouse is the most abundant mammal in Rhode Island,\u201d said Floyd. \u201cThey\u2019re everywhere \u2013 in fields, forests, farms, homes, everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Floyd, mice typically live short lives because they are the primary prey for many common predators. But because females can reproduce just 30 days after being born, and they can produce 3 to 4 broods of 4 to 8 babies per year, their populations can grow rapidly if the conditions are right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA white-footed mouse outbreak is all about survival,\u201d he said. \u201cThey have a high rate of being predated, but they seem to have survived better this year for some reason. The predator populations don\u2019t really change, but what does change is their winter survival rates. The last couple winters haven\u2019t been very severe, and that\u2019s one important factor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Floyd said that the abundance of acorns in the last two years has also provided plenty of food to carry the mice through the winter months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAcorns are a major food source. They\u2019ll eat seeds and other parts of plants, but it\u2019s mostly acorns, and acorns were abundant this year and last year,\u201d Floyd said. \u201cThat influences the size of their food cache for the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The combination of high food availability, mild winters and their typically high reproductive rate has led to a banner year for mice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat that means is a higher risk for Lyme disease and babesiosis,\u201d he said. \u201cBoth are transmitted by black-legged ticks, but mice are the primary reservoir for the bacteria that cause those diseases. Mice transmit Lyme and babesia to the ticks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Floyd said that homeowners should also expect a greater number of mice than usual in their basements and garages this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince the weather turned cool, I\u2019ve been catching about one mouse a day in my basement,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m up to 25 already. And that\u2019s a problem, because they chew the wiring, they make a nest out of the insulation, and they get inside vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An abundant mouse population isn\u2019t all bad news, however. Just as the abundance of acorns probably contributed to the increase in the mouse population, the abundance of mice will likely give a boost to wildlife populations that feed on mice, like hawks, owls, foxes and weasels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And by burying seeds and mushroom spores, mice also play an important role in supporting the regrowth of forests. So more mice could lead to healthier forests. But a lot will depend on the weather this winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s already looking like we\u2019re going to have another mild winter, and that\u2019s a good sign for white-footed mice.\u201d Floyd said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 December 13, 2021 \u2013 A wildlife biologist at the 溏心vlog免费B站 has observed a significant growth in the local population of white-footed mice this year, which could increase Lyme disease risk next year while also providing additional food to area predators and increasing the likelihood that homeowners find mice in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":78329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78326"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78369,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78326\/revisions\/78369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}