They scurry, climb and chew, but have you heard of jumping mice? | CBC News

They’re small, they’re springy, and they seem to make a good snack for gray herons.

According to Calgary naturalist Brian Keating, jerboas are one of Alberta’s little-known species, but he hasn’t caught many of them on film.

But recently, photographer Susan Ingham — who owns Ingham Nature Photography Inc. — sent him a collection of photos showing a mouse flying straight into a bird’s esophagus in Fish Creek Provincial Park in south Calgary.

“She really wasn’t sure what kind of rodent it was, and she thought maybe it was a baby muskrat,” Keating said in an interview The home track.

He sent the photo to professional biologist Chris Fisher, who immediately wrote back to say that its long tail and “long hind legs and yellowish undersides are indicative of a jumping mouse.”

The most common ones we hear about are the house mouse, the white-footed mouse, and the meadow mouse, which is often referred to as the field mouse, but there are many different types of rodents, Keating says.

While at the Canadian Wildlife Service in Saskatchewan, they set up peanut butter-baited traps to conduct studies on small mammals.

“I was completely blown away by the diversity out there. Every morning was like Christmas, sometimes new species were found,” he said.

According to the Alberta government, there are seven species of mice and 12 species of voles, which are small rodents with very short tails, in the province, Keating says.

He was also particularly interested in the kangaroo mouse, a jumping mouse species specific to prairie sand dune areas such as B. Sites near Suffield Canadian Forces Base near Medicine Hat.

These latest photos show that jumping mice are also found in Calgary.

“It’s just a very cool concept and a rarely seen rodent that can be identified if it goes head first into the esophagus of a serious predator!”

Why mice jump

In the case of the kangaroo mouse, Keating says that jumping is actually a very efficient way of moving through sandy environments.

“If you look at the real kangaroos of Australia, studies have shown that their hopping leap actually uses less energy for the distance traveled,” he said.

“It generates less muscle heat, which is a good adjustment when you think about an environment that’s low on water and often hot.”

Jumping mice are also found in wet, swampy areas, where jumping would also be an efficient mode of locomotion, Keating says.

There are two types of jerboas most commonly found in Alberta: the meadow jerboa, found in the northern part of the province, and the western jerboa, found in the southern part.

They can jump about two feet and a foot high.

“Apparently their usual leap resembles a hopping frog,” Keating said.

The rodents typically spend about nine months in hibernation, emerging in late May after losing nearly 25 percent of their body weight.

Females have a 19-day gestation period before giving birth to up to nine young.

They become a potential meal for herons because the birds are “opportunistic hunters,” says Keating, and eat anything that can be swallowed, including fish, frogs, reptiles, small mammals, insects and other birds.

“They grab smaller prey with their strong mandibles, and they can also use their dagger-like beaks to spear larger fish,” he said.

“They have a very specialized elongated neck vertebra that allows them to smash their prey with remarkable force.”

If the jumping mice aren’t eaten, they live up to four years, says Keating.

“How incredibly exciting to find out that there is another species of jumping mouse here in Calgary and throughout Alberta.”

For more fascinating stories about Alberta’s wildlife from naturalist Brian Keating, visit his website and these stories: