No doubt many of you heard the recent news that “Wicked: For Good” star Jonathan Bailey was named People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2025. Okay... But what species would you select to be the most attractive small mammal in North Dakota?
A pocket gopher is probably out of the running. How about a mouse? More specifically, how about the white-footed mouse or what some might call a deer mouse?
I was thinking about that recently while perusing through my copy of Bernd Heinrich’s book Winter World. In it, he quotes an interesting description of a mouse from Mason A. Walton’s book A Hermit’s Wild Friends or Eighteen Years in the Woods:
“The white-footed mouse, unlike the house mouse, is a handsome fellow. He sports a chestnut coat, a white vest, reddish brown trousers, and white stockings. His eyes and ears are uncommonly large, causing his head to resemble a deer’s in miniature. This resemblance has bestowed upon him the name of ‘deer-mouse’.”
And Mason is not the only one who thinks the deer mouse is nice-looking. Robert Seabloom in his Mammals of North Dakota notes that the deer mouse is one of the most beautiful small mammals in the state.
There are around 20 species of what the casual observer may call a mouse that can be found in North Dakota, including the house mouse, deer mouse, pocket mouse, jumping mouse, as well as voles and shrews. Mice in the genus Peromyscus are generally referred to as deer mice, and North Dakota is home to two very similar species, Peromyscus leucopus, often known as a white-footed mouse, and Peromyscus maniculatus, commonly known as a deer mouse.
The deer mouse is widely distributed in North America and perhaps the most abundant mammal in North Dakota where it occupies a wide range of habitats. Like many other small mammals, they are prey of several predators, including owls, weasels, skunks, badgers, and fox. As one might be expected, they have a high mortality rate as well as a high reproductive rate, with females having 3-4 litters a year with four or so young per litter. However, very few are likely to survive to their first birthday.
It might seem strange that a mouse could be North Dakota’s most attractive small mammal, but they would certainly be at or near the top of the list.
