Connect with us

Animals

Southern Grasshopper mouse: The tiny super-predator that howls at the moon before it kills

Published

7m ago

on

/ 2701 Views

Name: Southern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus)

Where it lives: Southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico

What is eats: Scorpions, insects, other rodents and some plant material

Why it's awesome: The southern grasshopper mouse is a carnivore that's largely immune to scorpion venom, and howls at the moon before it kills like a tiny wolf. 

This mouse species is an extremely aggressive predator and will attack pretty much anything moving that isn't significantly bigger than itself. It even resorts to cannibalism when food is scarce. It stalks prey before seizing it, then kills with a bite to the head.

One of its favorite prey is the Arizona bark scorpion (Centruroides sculpturatus) — whose venom is potent enough to kill humans.

Related: A war of the rats was raging in North America decades before the Declaration of Independence

Tags:

Trending