It is interesting how
ambivalent we are about the house mouse. It remains one of our most enduring
cartoon characters from Mickey, through Jerry with Mighty Mouse trailing in
third place. This isn’t meant to imply that Mickey is much more famous than
Jerry, but he is older at 85, although he doesn’t get out much on our HD TVs these
days because of his venerability.
On the other hand, if one
appears in our house, we rush to attack it with mechanical, chemical or
biological forms of Weapons of Mouse Destruction.
In spite of our efforts Mus musculus domesticus is not only
still around, but has gone wherever we’ve gone. Next to us, it is probably the
most invasive mammal on the planet. Perhaps here we should note that our
evolutionary trees had a common point of origin, even though it was a long time
ago.
Our common journey has
been a big problem in some parts of the world. Australia grows a lot of cereals
in the southeastern region and periodic breeding booms of our little mouse friend
produces big problems for the farmers (1).
The international team of
Searle et al made a study of the
mitochondrial DNA of mice from all over Australia and compared it to that of
mice from elsewhere (2). The evidence is in. They came from southern England
and the northwestern part of the British Isles.
A large number of convict
ships sailed from southern England and Ireland in the early days of the
colonization of Australia, so it appears that it wasn't only convicts who were
transported for life. Large numbers of mice shared the same fate.
Of course, cats followed
and the feral cat population is now also a problem, but not to farmers, rather
to the native small marsupial population. Our Aussie mates will also point out
that we made rather a mess with rabbits and dogs back then too.
- http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2007.01296.x/full
- http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0028622
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