Desert Gazette

They come out late at night, stand on their hind legs and scream…  This is how they call to each other, with high-pitched howls and shrieks. They gather together in murderous pairs to hunt for scorpions, tarantulas, stinkbugs and even other mice.  If their babies are old enough they take them along to teach them the dark secrets of survival.  They scurry about in the sand in the black of night sniffing and groping about in a furtive search for food.

The darkling beetle, the stinkbug as we most commonly know it, defends itself by by squirting a toxic spray at its enemies.  Mostly, this is a an effective defense, but, generation after generation the little mice have been taught an “adaptive response”, to firmly plant the offensive end of the black beetle into the earth and bite into the head of the creature killing it.  They howl again upon success- For they share their prey with their family.  In the case of the beetle, the nutritious head may not be much, but in the case of a scorpion or tarantula, the feast may be substantial. These deadly mice do not confine themselves to seeds and insects.  They also have adapted carnivorous diets and will take down and eat a deer mouse on occasion.

Their shrieking is not always a call to hunt or to feast. Sometimes it is a warning to another of their kind for coming too close to their burrows.  Not only will they kill their own species for trespassing, they will cannibalise it and share it with their young.

These are the ways of the grasshopper mouse.  Meek, tiny and furry with little black-eyes and otherwise appearing sooooooo cuuuuuuuuute…. Just beware; Who knows when they may be so bold as to attack a human?