Murinae

There are over forty varying subspecies under the classification of mouse in this setting although many are so similar that even members of the categories have difficulties telling each other apart and most can interbreed resulting in an even more jumbled mess of potential species. In general, most find it easiest to simply classify anyone from any of these groups as mice, and unless one member is specifically interested in whether another mouse is of a species they can interbreed with, there is rarely any reason to bother distinguishing between them. In fact, one mouse questioning another as to their specific subspecies is often viewed as slightly flirtatious as there is little other reason to want to know that information except to assess the likelihood of offspring.

Still, for those who want to know without asking or are just curious, there are a few distinct traits that can often help distinguish one species from another. Of course, it should be noted that almost all species overlap a little in their appearance and it is entirely possible to encounter, for example, a harvest mouse that is more slender or darker furred than a specific jumping mouse. All details about appearances listed below are generalizations only and become even fuzzier once hybrids get involved.

Harvest Mice:
Historically these were nomads who traveled between different settlements. Their name comes from their tendency to show up at large settlements just as either the harvest or planting was due in order to take advantage of the extra work. Between these times they would often find work as traders traveling between the settlements and traveling anywhere with other large projects or building work available. Despite the negative associations that many early settlements had of most travelers, harvest mice were usually well received and popular, having a reputation for being hard workers with a tendency to show up when needed and offering fair prices for their labor. This is, of course, a generalization and there were undoubtedly harvesters who took advantage of the anonymity that a nomadic lifestyle provided as well as those settlements who found their tendency to show up following a disaster or predator raid on their home with an offer to help rebuild suspicious. In general, however, settlements that reacted negatively to these nomads would often find themselves short on workers or avoided by the larger trading routes, so most welcomed them and harvest mice that did not enjoy the nomadic lifestyle were often permitted to join even fairly exclusionary settlements.

Their appearance is fairly average which often makes them one of the harder species to identify, but a few traits can be used to help differentiate them from the other species. The most distinctive is their rich chestnut fur color which gets brighter in the fall and then darker as winter sets in. They tend to be tall and bulky, which gives them added strength compared to other similar species although makes them poor runners. They have long whiskers compared to muzzle length and they tend to have small litters. They are also often popular among carnivores for having a richer flavor than most other subspecies, although there are some who dislike the earthiness of their taste.

Harvest mice are one of the most numerous in modern settlements. Their strategies throughout history suited them well, and as the various tribes and settlements started to band together into full cities and technology levels increased, harvest mice became widespread across most settlements.

Field Mice
Closely related to the harvest mice and with pretty decent chances of being able to interbreed, this species was once the most numerous type of mouse by a wide margin. They tend to be smaller than harvest mice, less strong, and with less coloration in their fur. They also have blunter looking muzzles and shorter whiskers. Historically, they tended to keep to themselves, setting up farming settlements where they could, but often avoiding other species, and in some case outright shunning other mouse subspecies as well.

In the modern era, they have fared reasonably well, although are not the most common species of mouse anymore. Their large litter sizes are definitely a key factor in keeping them competitive with the other subspecies, but they have slightly less sharp hearing and night vision than most other mouse subspecies which was not a major disadvantage when they lived in their own tribes but proves a significant drawback in a modern setting when venturing out during hunting hours.

Jumping Mice
Jumping mice primarily settled in forested areas. Dense woodland made agriculture almost impossible for these tribes and they were forced to space themselves out over large areas to ensure each settlement had enough land to survive. This in turn meant their tribes had little support from their neighbors and were considered easy to raid by many woodland predators. Traders bringing supplies provided vital relief to these tribes although the lack of resources to offer in return meant these came fairly infrequently. The main export of these tribes was often medicinal plants which were usually treated as fairly valuable by most merchants, but this was not enough to make up for the lack of reliable farmland and, as the major cities started to form, most members of the jumping mice tribes were quick to abandon their settlements in the hope of finding better opportunities elsewhere… and those that stayed were usually wiped out soon after by the local predators (which in turn resulted in shortages of food for the predatory tribes and many of them following their prey to the cities). This early start on joining the larger cities, however, did help jumping mice to become one of the better established subspecies.

Jumping mice tend to be on the small side even among the rodent species, and their most prominent identifiable features are their long tail which frequently ends in a small white tuft. Also, as any predator who believes they have cornered one will likely be able to tell you, they earned their name for a reason. Jumping mice are not the fastest runners, despite their long legs, but they can leap surprisingly high when pressured and several predators have lost what should have been an easy catch due to their meal being able to climb walls or access escape routes that would have been assumed impossible for someone their size.

House Mice
One of the most sociable species of rodent. Historically, they had a reputation for rarely founding their own tribes and settlements. Instead, they would often be found living alongside some other species. Other mice were the most common in this arrangement, of course, but there were also those formed joint settlements alongside with other herbivore species such as rabbits, or even with non-predatory omnivores such as humans. This disjointed approach, with settlements spread out over a wide area, prevented them from having much influence in the past. They could be found in a wide variety of locations, but almost always only as a secondary presence, leading to them being ignored and overlooked in many situations. Their willingness to cooperate with other species definitely helped them take advantage of niches that others would have struggled to utilize, but they often found themselves being delegated to more background roles, getting assigned work as lookouts or farmers, while the species they lived alongside took a more central role in politics and world affairs.

In terms of physical differences, they tend to be among the smaller members of the mouse subspecies. Most of them have greyish fur, often looking almost blue compared to many other mouse species. They have slightly larger ears proportional to their head sizes, with fairly short muzzles. While fairly weak even compared to other mice, their hearing and night vision are particularly sharp, which means that they often got assigned roles as guards and lookouts to watch for carnivore raids. Their large litter sizes also meant that they were often considered fairly expendable for roles such as this. Callita (pictured above) is a fairly typical example of her species, although perhaps a little larger than most house mice, given her size next to what she had previously assumed to be her harvest mouse girlfriend. The pink hair, of course, is not a natural occurrence in any mouse subspecies.

As mouse subspecies go, house mice have adapted very well to modern life. In fact, it could be argued that modern life has adapted to them, as the other species have mostly been forced to admit that living in large cities instead of vulnerable and isolated communities has its advantages, and have mostly ended up adopting what the house mice have been doing for centuries. Being well adapted to such conditions, this subspecies is thriving despite many predators considering them to taste even better than the average mouse.

Grasshopper Mice:
The major exception to the rule that there is little reason to know someone’s exact species other than to assess genetic compatibility, and for very good reason. Unfortunately, for those who find themselves needing to figure this out, grasshopper mice are also one of the hardest to identify of all Murinae subspecies. Visually grasshopper mice often appear quite similar in appearance to harvest mice, on average being slightly larger, with blunter muzzles and a little more of a yellow tint to their coats. Historically, many of them occupied a similar role as well, with many of them forming nomadic groups that would arrive at other rodent settlements looking for work, then move on again a few days later. A telltale distinction from actual harvest mice, however, is the string of disappearances that would often only be discovered once the troop had moved on.

Making them even harder to identify is the wide degree of variability within this subspecies. While an appearance close to a bulky, sandy-colored harvest mouse is the standard for this subspecies, it is not uncommon to find grasshoppers with jet black coats, elongated muzzles, tail tufts, or almost any other feature making identifying them by sight alone almost impossible. One very obvious distinction between grasshoppers and all other Murinae subspecies, however, is their physical strength. They vastly outmatch any other kind of mouse in terms of raw muscle, being closer to a squirrel or rabbit than a mouse. There are numerous examples of a careless predator losing their meal and often getting injured in the process simply because they did not realize what they were dealing with and assumed the cornered rodent would be no more dangerous than any other mouse.

Of course, this increased physical prowess comes at a cost to metabolism and, unlike the majority of their cousins, grasshoppers cannot survive on a vegetarian diet and they have all the adaptations to their stomach and esophagus that one would find on any other member of the carnivore species. This, in turn, presents a serious problem for other members of the murinae family who frequently rely heavily on the assumption that other mice can be trusted to at least not help carnivores during hunting hours, and many view exposing grasshoppers in a community as nearly as important as catching those who have taken to helping predators with their hunts. Still, unlike those who sell other mice to predators, grasshopper mice usually only have to worry about being publicly exposed if found out, instead of being murdered or handed over to a carnivore themselves as a form of poetic justice. Much as the other mice species dislike grasshoppers, a distinction is still usually made between their need to hunt other mice, and someone else assisting a predator for profit.

On the other hand, having their nature and habits exposed to the rest of the community can be pretty devastating to a grasshopper mouse. Very few of their kind risk searching for prey outside during hunting hours as, not only do they lack the strength and speed to do so reliably, their appearance as regular mice means very few other predators recognize them as fellow hunters, and venturing out to hunt is a risky proposition for them. Instead, grasshopper mice almost universally prefer to hunt through deception, inviting unsuspecting meals home with them before ensuring that they never get to leave. It’s a delicate balancing act to avoid being associated with too many disappearances and raising the suspicion of their neighbors, while also finding enough to eat. Fortunately, as omnivores, they don’t need to consume other rodents anywhere near as often as an obligate predator would, and often can take their time to build a credible story around any missing people to ensure that they don’t come out looking guilty.

For example, in the case above, Jessica already has her girlfriend’s phone and unlock code and, in a few hours, Callita’s contacts will all receive a message noting that she just realized how low she was getting on groceries and that, while she does know how risky venturing out during hunting hours can be, the grocery shop is really just down the road and she can see that no one is around at this hour. As the final message her account will ever post, it won’t attract anything more that a few people shaking their heads and commenting on how foolish that decision was. Not only that, but the loss of her girlfriend will provide Jessica with the perfect excuse to spend a few days withdrawn from any contact, giving her plenty of time to get rid of any suspicious bulges before she returns to public once more.

Still, despite how effective this strategy can be, grasshopper numbers have been dwindling significantly since the industrial revolution and most of the world transition from species separated tribes into large cities with hunting laws. In the past, their species was able to survive reasonably well under the guise of being harmless traders or nomads, helping themselves to a few discreet meals, and slipping away before the disappearances were noticed. In the modern day, and a more interconnected world, this kind of subterfuge is becoming harder and harder to maintain, however, and those that do maintain their cover as some other subspecies are still in danger of being treated that way by larger carnivores should they ever find themselves outside during hunting hours.

Small litter sizes also used to be advantageous, keeping their nomadic groups to a manageable level and preventing the food requirements from causing more disappearances than could be explained away by chance or misfortune. In a modern setting, however, this hampers their species, making it hard for them to replace the numbers they lose due to starvation, or predation. In short, grasshopper mice are often considered poorly adapted to modern life, lacking the strength that other carnivorous species have and the social connections that most rodents rely so heavily upon. Their numbers were never high, and they have been in steady decline for the past few decades. It is not know if they will manage to turn these around or if their species is doomed to extinction.

Still, regardless of whether the house mice do outperform their grasshopper cousins in the general sense, in this particular case, Callita is going to very much regret dropping in on her girlfriend today… and Jessica will likely be coughing up small strands of pink hair for the next few weeks.

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