Pacific Pocket Mice - reintroduction

[Maz]

I came across the virtually extinct Pacific Pocket Mouse and this video about how they bred more of them in captivity and are reintroducing them to the wild. They seem a bit like hamsters as they hoard food in their "pockets". But very tiny and cute! There are some really interesting bits in the video - like how they trained them to be wary of predators before releasing them into the wild into pre-made burrow systems. I had never heard of these before.

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[Socks' Mum]

They are delightful!

 

[Maz]

They are aren't they. The reintroducing project is interesting too - seems like a nice job!

 

[Socks' Mum]

The opposite dilemma to us, they want their rodents to breed, although I suppose they have to avoid too much inbreeding

 

[Socks' Mum]

They must do a lot of weighing...

 

[Maz]

Did you see the bit about predator training?

 

[elusive]

Those tiny mice are just so adorable!
To see that kind of dedicated work on the reintroduction is just amazing too, so good to see people working to put things right in the wild.

 

[Maz]

They are almost a hamster aren't they? Apart from the tails.

 

[elusive]

They are very hamster like in their behaviour & pouching!

 

[Maz]

They are aren't they. They reminded me a bit of a sort of chinese hamster.

 

[Socks' Mum]

Did you see the bit about predator training?

Quite a formidable snake! And a stuffed owl The little mice look quite quick though!

 

[Tulsi]

They seem a bit gerbil like as well and similar to roborovski hamsters.

The predator training was amazing!

 

[Maz]

I think so too A cross between a gerbil, Roborovski and Chinese hamster

 

[Socks' Mum]

They are very hamster like in their behaviour & pouching!

Yes, and the adults are solitary

 

[Maz]

I thought that too - that's more hamster like. Carrying the babies back to the nest looked hamster-like too but then maybe gerbils do that as well.

I know some hamsters were originally designated as a mouse (possibly chinese?) before they were reclassified as a hamster. I wonder if anyone has looked into that with the pacific pocket mice!

 

[Maz]

I just googled that as I couldn't remember which hamster was originally thought to be a mouse (it was the Winter White Hamster) and came across this

The mouse-like hamster AKA a brush tailed mouse - which is actually a hamster - and does look very similar to the pacific pocket mouse ............ Although it says they are not true hamsters as they lack the pouches. Whereas the Pacific Pocket mouse does have pouches - so maybe should be classified as a hamster! It would be interesting to find out what classifies them as a hamster - I think teeth formation was one thing.

Mouse-like hamster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Maz]

Apparently they live 3 to 5 years in the wild and one lived for 9 years in a Zoo!

Pacific pocket mouse - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Maz]

Maybe their pouches are different though - they're described as "external fur-lined" pouches

Pacific pocket mouse

www.biologicaldiversity.org