Mouse Swarm in Australia

http://emuse.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/11499

I found this on Ebaumsworld.com. Australian farmers found them selves in a year of extremely good conditions for growing crops, however an explosion in the wild mouse population threatened the entire area.

Makes me wonder why this was never on the news in the USA.

liflies to Australia immediatelyli

Aww, cute widdle mousies....I'm going take a few home with me. Eh, they'll never miss 'em.

--Meg

I'm the type to think that every creature has a right to life. But I may make an exception when someone's gotten too good at multiplication. What really surprised me was how quickly they killed them all. Each mouse probably caused less than a dollar in damage, but it added up fast. Very creepy. :shock:

You don't think they were taking revenge on NIMH, do you?

This video reminded me of another video of some Guinness World Records archive stuff. a single pair of mice were left alone in an almost completely sealed off environment. The only unsealed ares were the air ventilation systems that the mice could not get to at all and a hatch way out of the way where food materials were dropped down into the test area twice a week.

After the three year test the environment had not been disturbed, except for the bi-weekly feeding. from 2 mice three years earlier, there was an estimated 3 million mice in the test area. The mouse population had gotten large, that the food that was being dropped twice a week was eaten in a matter of minutes that the mice were already resorting to cannibalism.

Pretty crazy, eh?

Sounds like a bunch of Binabi to me, when it comes to cannibalism. ;)

The serious size of the "colony" was too large for the amount of food and at the speed it was dropped into the sealed area. Too many mouths too feed and all that. It would make more sense that the over populated mice would eat their dead than resort to cannibalism, but the evidence was there when the experiment was concluded. It would have been something if the scientists involved had set up 24hour CCTV surveillance or time-lapsed cameras, but they wanted to see what would happen if the mice were not disturbed.

Speaking of mice troubles, I confirmed a rumor today that my school had such a problem. In one of my classes, I saw a mousetrap, but didn't think much of it. It was only after some other students were throwing it around (including dropping it in my lap), that I noticed it was occupied.
That really steamed me. One, it was unsanitary and god knows what diseases it carried. And two, those boys were showing no respect for the dead. The poor thing, it didn't even look fully grown yet. :(

Hey Cedric...Did the mouse have mickey mouse ears? Those are called Deer Mice and are characterized by being a fairly small sized species of mice contrasted by their ears. Deer Mice are the species of mice known to carry the hanta virus. I hope it was not a deer mouse. Still, either way if it was a deer mouse or just a plain old Field Mouse, it should have been disposed of properly rather than tossing the trap and mouse around as if it were a damn game. Thats not only gross but saddening.

Hey Cedric...Did the mouse have mickey mouse ears? Those are called Deer Mice and are characterized by being a fairly small sized species of mice contrasted by their ears. Deer Mice are the species of mice known to carry the hanta virus. I hope it was not a deer mouse. Still, either way if it was a deer mouse or just a plain old Field Mouse, it should have been disposed of properly rather than tossing the trap and mouse around as if it were a damn game. Thats not only gross but saddening.

Here's some information and pictures of deer mice, if you're curious:
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Peromyscus_maniculatus.html

In captivity, P. maniculatus can live as long as eight years. However, in the wild, life expectancy is much shorter, usually less than a year (Baker 1983).

Whoa, thats prettly long life for a captive deer mouse. Even if they live that long in captivity, i'd think twice about having deer mice as pets. If those little fluffers got loose in my home...well my Mum would lynch me.

Yup, it was a deer mouse. And if I see the bums who did it again, they'll need body bags when I'm done with them. :evil:
Alright, I won't really kill them. But they will feel pain. Even a dead mouse deserves more respect than that.

It makes me wonder how people like that would bitch and complain if they were magically switched places with a mouse or a rat for even a day. I my self would jump at such an opportunity to experience life on a who new level 8) , but for other people like the guys you described Cedric...well lets just say that they would freak'n out :twisted:

Have any of you heard on the news lately about rats infesting KFC and Taco Bell restruants? If not, here it is[=http://www.comcast.net/news/strange/index.jsp?cat=STRANGE&fn=/2007/02/23/594395.html]here it is. :wink:

I'll never eat at another KFC or TacoBell again, thats nasty. Especially New Yorker rats, i'd have to wonder what kind of health hazards those rats are carrying around.

After watching the video clip, I have to admit that even I was left speechless. However one must not lose sight of the fact that this is a problem of our own doing in that the mice in question were introduced to Australia years ago. I suspect that most were stowaways aboard the sailing ships of yore, but some may have been deliberately brought to the land "down under" the same way that rabbits were brought in. Once there and finding themselves in a land with few, if any natural predators they, like the rabbits did what they do best which is to multiply like crazy.

Peace 8)
NIMHmaniac ,

After watching the video clip, I have to admit that even I was left speechless. However one must not lose sight of the fact that this is a problem of our own doing in that the mice in question were introduced to Australia years ago. I suspect that most were stowaways aboard the sailing ships of yore, but some may have been deliberately brought to the land "down under" the same way that rabbits were brought in. Once there and finding themselves in a land with few, if any natural predators they, like the rabbits did what they do best which is to multiply like crazy.

Peace 8)
NIMHmaniac ,

Much can be said for a similar Australian problem in the form of Cane Toads. Cane Toads were accidentally introduced to Australia some years ago and the little amphibians have been thriving ever since. Here is an interesting article about the cane toad which was introduced to Australia in the '40s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cane_Toad#Introduction_to_Australia