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Name : Southern grasshopper computer mouse ( Onychomys torridus )
Where it lives : Southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico
A southern grasshopper mouse howling to mark its territory in the Chihuahua Desert, Mexico.
What is eats : Scorpion , insects , other rodents and some plant fabric
Why it ’s awesome : The southern grasshopper mouse is a carnivore that ’s mostly resistant to scorpion malice , and howl at the moon before it kills like a midget Friedrich August Wolf .
This mouse species is an extremely aggressive predator andwill attack pretty much anything movingthat is n’t significantly bigger than itself . It even resort to cannibalism when solid food is scarce . It haunt prey before capture it , then kills with a sharpness to the heading .
One of its favored prey is the Arizona bark Scorpio the Scorpion ( Centruroides sculpturatus ) — whose venom ispotent enough to kill human being .
Related : A war of the betrayer was raging in North America decades before the Declaration of Independence
To get around this , the southerly hopper mousereduces the venom ’s effectsby shutting down the chemical substance channel that transmits the pain sensation sign to the brain when that particular venom is present . This means they are essentially numb to the pain — although researchers still do n’t knowwhy the toxin is n’t lethal to them .
The mouse is also capable to burn off the scorpion ’s nates , rendering it incapable of burn .
The southern grasshopper mouse is also famous for howling at the moonlight — standing up on its hind legs , pointing its nose into the gentle wind and producinghigh - pitch vocalizationthrough its mouth thatcan be heard for up to 330 feet ( 100 time ) .
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Their vocalism are produced in the same way human beings speak and wolf yowl — by creating tissue vibration get by airflow , agree to a study publish in 2017 . The team also name these mice have a bell - shaped vocal parcel that increases outspoken intensity .
The howl , which is often produced just before a killing , is believed to help check off the mouse ’s territory . The southern grasshopper black eye is fiercely territorial and mostly nonsocial — while member of this species can live in male person - female twosome , this often ends in one vote out the other , according toAnimal Diversity vane .
