Scorpion Devouring Murder-Mice Stalk the Badlands of The West

*I apologize in advance if this has been posted already, I did a thorough search and was surprised to not find it here so.....*



Onychomys torridus


The southern grasshopper mouse stalks the badlands of, the western United States and can be found in Mexico, Arizona and to my horror, California.

This little terror is known to eat some of the nastiest most poisonous creatures out there and that is why the bloodthirsty little mammal is presently the subject of medical research...

DEEP in the Sonoran desert, a terrifying creature searches for fresh meat - even venomous scorpions are on the menu. Throwing its head back, the animal howls at the moon. This isn't a horror movie but a day in the life of the southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus, pictured), North America's only carnivorous mouse. It may hold the secret to a new kind of painkiller.

The venom of Arizona bark scorpions causes pain and respiratory failure in humans. Yet grasshopper mice eat them without pause, even while being stung. To discover their secret, Ashlee Rowe of Sam Houston State University in Austin, Texas, and colleagues examined how the venom affected the nerve cells of mice.

www.newscientist.com...

Actually, the mouse gives a bloodcurdling howl before closing in on its prey.







Zoologists have studied the grasshopper mouse to try to discover what makes it just so bad ass. At first it was believed that the ruinous rodent was so successful because it had adapted a wider gape, and was compared to a sort of miniature version of a saber cat.

But later, a new team discovered that the grasshopper mouse really does not have that much more gape, but that it is much more about rapid powerful chomping and piercing, and so would be more analogous to a tiger. I found the anatomical analogies using the big cats to be kind of fun and the full article can be found here...

Mouse Howls Like Wolf, Bites Like Tiger.

Finally, although I cannot find a picture of it, the little Manson-mouse likes to physically evict other rodents from their homes so they can move in. Really, what's not to love.





Thanks, ATS.

I hate mices but I have to respect this little fellow. I wonder how other kind of mice would react in front of him.

First S&F on me

reply to post by Xoanon


i caught a mouse the other day that came through a water logged wall in my bathroom, i had my leather gloves on as not to get a mouse plague.

this thing was pissed it grabbed on with its little teeth and tried for blood and was screaming at me like a demon., i was going to take him out to the field and let him go but when he showed me the evil inside him i freed him from his pissed off existence and feed him to my dog. now that my dog has a taste for mouse blood hopefully she will get any of the demon mouses cronies that are coming to enact vengeance for there fallen brother.

reply to post by DocHolidaze


You seriously just killed the innocent little guy because he was scared of you and wanted to get away?
Man,you really should have just taken it to the field, would have been a better choice imho.

Not trying to be a dick, I just have soft spot for rodents. Have had many pet rats over the years.

reply to post by Lichter daraus


i also had a soft spot for rodents, till one went for blood and screamed at me like a demon. i dont kill animals for fun, but either i let this hell rat live another day and live a life knowing that he is still out there. or i save my only pair of leather gloves from getting chewed through as i walk him 4 blocks to the field. and my dog got a free meal so in the end i think the circle o life was completed and there is one less hell rat out there.

i will not kill all mice and rats that i catch only the ones that have hate in there heart and soulless eyes

Interesting, but would I want a painkiller from a mouse? EWWW .... This could very well be the start of the zombie apocalypse!

But seriously, EWWWWW

reply to post by DocHolidaze


I dont know man maybe you could have put it in something with a lid, oh well whats done is done.


Ps. I use live traps and just drive to a small lake in a state park near my house.

Your thread brought this to my mind. "The Mouse That Roared" by Leonard Wibberley. What an interesting mouse. I look forward to reading what they find out with their research.

Couple more pics in its native habitat. Thanks for the article, loved it.

Originally posted by Lichter daraus
reply to post by DocHolidaze

 

You seriously just killed the innocent little guy because he was scared of you and wanted to get away?
Man,you really should have just taken it to the field, would have been a better choice imho.

Not trying to be a dick, I just have soft spot for rodents. Have had many pet rats over the years.

The great plague of Europe was caused by the fleas carried by black rats into Europe, which in turn came by ship from the far east, nice, eh?

I think as killer ( African ) bees and fire ants seem to prove , when you live in a rough neighborhood you need a an attitude . ( and your that small )

I'd like to see what happens after a few generations if a colony of these mice were moved to an easy living area from a mouse's point of view because it seems to me that both killer bees and fire ants are a lot more laid back than they were when they first showed up .

Where the bees could be breeding with domestic strains I'm pretty sure that's not happening with the fire ants ,and I KNOW they're mellower than they were 20 years ago .

reply to post by DocHolidaze


That was a really good story. I could totally see myself doing the same thing. The nerve of the vicious little ingrate.

2nd.

reply to post by jjkenobi


Dude, you are a genius, Adam's Watership Down meets 300.

It's a script waiting to happen. Oh, I think they may have done that in that animated owl movie.

reply to post by DocHolidaze


You were roughly 2,000 - 3,000 times larger than the mouse, it posed you zero threat, was terrified and confused, and you decided to kill it instead of giving it its freedom.

Interesting how a description on giving into and acting upon irrational fear and superstition instead of compassion and understanding gets you a bunch of stars.

Pathetic.

reply to post by CaticusMaximus


ohhh nooo a mouse died call peta and throw some red paint on me when i walk down the street

stop hating, the mouse was eaten so its death was not in vain, but if you wanna get emotional over a mouse be my guest

reply to post by DocHolidaze


I wonder how you would react if a giant alien came and plucked you up off the ground? Would you scream and fight, using anything within your limited abilities to get free from this horrid monster who has you in it's clutches?

I would think that giant alien would then decide to feed you to his giant dinodogsaur, I mean what's a piddly little screaming, biting human to him?

Originally posted by DocHolidaze
reply to post by CaticusMaximus

 

ohhh nooo a mouse died call peta and throw some red paint on me when i walk down the street

stop hating, the mouse was eaten so its death was not in vain, but if you wanna get emotional over a mouse be my guest

I still say the field was a better choice, but seriously I'm sorry dude I didn't mean to open that can of worms on you.
I for one am no fan of PETA, but im all for peta(people eating tasty animals)

reply to post by Kryties


I was going to say pretty much the same thing, except was going to use interdimensional being who feeds doc to its Balrog in the basement

It seems those analogies are beyond some peoples grasp, though. They feel no empathy.

reply to post by Xoanon


Kind or reminds me of



Thanks for the interesting presentation 1 needed a laugh



takes time to feel

Originally posted by Lichter daraus
reply to post by DocHolidaze

 

You seriously just killed the innocent little guy because he was scared of you and wanted to get away?
Man,you really should have just taken it to the field, would have been a better choice imho.

Not trying to be a dick, I just have soft spot for rodents. Have had many pet rats over the years.

You do know rats and mice tend to carry diseases, as they've traveled through all kinds of nasty things, such as toilets, fecal matter, trash cans, dumpsters.

And they also reproduce and spread like the plague, I've seen documentaries where rats and mice get into corn and grain stocks, and there are literally thousands. They might be cute, but they are a nuisance animal.