Grasshopper Mouse
Onychomys arenicola
Onychomys leucogaster
Onychomys torridus
The genus Onychomys contains species commonly referred to as grasshopper mice. This is a genus of New World mouse only distantly related to the common house mouse, Mus musculus. There are three species. They are endemic to the United States and Mexico.
Its behavior is rather distinct from other mice. It is a carnivorous rodent, dining on insects (such as grasshoppers), worms, scorpions, snakes, and even other mice. It also stalks its prey in the manner of a cat sneaking up quietly, and defends its territory by "howling" like a small wolf. The Grasshopper Mouse is known to be immune to various venoms released by its prey. (Scorpions, Snakes, etc.)
Read more about Grasshopper Mouse: Species
Famous quotes containing the words grasshopper and/or mouse:
“A worm is as good a traveler as a grasshopper or a cricket, and a much wiser settler. With all their activity these do not hop away from drought nor forward to summer. We do not avoid evil by fleeing before it, but by rising above or diving below its plane; as the worm escapes drought and frost by boring a few inches deeper.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A mouse does not run into the mouth of a sleeping cat.”
—Estonian. Trans. by Ilse Lehiste (1993)