Meadow jumping mouse

Meadow jumping mice move through tall grass in a series of long leaps, using their long hind feet to spring and their long tail for balance. They are active at night and feed on grass seeds, fruit, fungi and insects.

They are deep hibernators. After fattening up in late summer, they spend six months or more asleep in an underground nest, one of the longest hibernation periods of any North American mammal.

Jumping mice are part of the wildlife of wet meadows, a habitat that has been drained and ploughed across much of the East. In Georgia they are rare, and where they occur they are a sign of a healthy wet grassland.

Their long hibernation also makes them an unusual mammal: a mouse that is awake for only about half the year.

Breeding — late spring and summer, one or two litters
Gestation — about 18 days
Litter — usually four to six young
Weaning — at about four weeks old
Hibernation — from autumn to spring, often six months or more
Lifespan — a year or two

• Draining and mowing wet meadows removes their habitat.
• Leaving uncut grass along streams and ditches helps them.
• A jumping mouse found in winter is hibernating and should be left undisturbed.

• A mouse that leaps like that must be a baby kangaroo rat. It is a native jumping mouse, with no relation to desert kangaroo rats.
• All mice are active in winter. Jumping mice hibernate for half the year.

• Woodland jumping mouse
• Eastern harvest mouse
• White-footed mouse