Here are my three versions of my scorpion mouse. This may be the last creature I design I had intend to have around 10 animals but due to time constraints I think I have to move on from this part of the project.
Following are the images I used for reference when drawing my scorpion mouse, as well as the information I have gathered relating to my scorpion mouse.
Mouse info
House mice have an adult body
length (nose to base of tail) of 7.5–10 cm (3.0–3.9 in) and a tail
length of 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in). The weight is typically 10–25 g
(0.4–0.9 oz). In the wild they vary in color from light to dark agouti (light to dark brown) but domesticated
fancy mice and laboratory mice are produced in many colors ranging from white
to champagne to black.[5] They have short hair and some, but not all,
sub-species have a light belly.[6] The ears and tail have little hair. The
hind feet are short compared to Apodemus mice,
only 15–19 mm (0.59–0.75 in) long; the normal gait is a run with a
stride of about 4.5 cm (1.8 in), though they can jump vertically up
to 45 cm (18 in).[7] The voice is a high-pitched squeak.[8][9] House mice thrive under a variety of
conditions: they are found in and around homes and commercial structures, as
well as in open fields and agricultural lands.
New-born males and females can
be distinguished on close examination as the anogenital distance in males is approximately double that
of the female.[10] From the age of about 10 days females have
five pairs of mammary
glands and nipples; males
have no nipples.[11] When sexually mature, the most striking and
obvious difference is the presence of testicles on the males. These are large compared to
the rest of the body and can be retracted into the body.
The tail, which is used for
balance,[12][13][14] has only a thin covering of hair as it is
the main peripheral organ of heat loss inthermoregulation[13] along with — to a lesser extent —
the hairless parts of the paws and ears. Blood flow to the tail can be
precisely controlled in response to changes in ambient temperature using a
system of arteriovenous
anastomoses to
increase the temperature of the skin on the tail by as much as 10 °C to
lose body heat.[15] Tail length varies according to the
environmental temperature of the mouse during post-natal development and so
mice living in colder regions tend to have shorter tails.[16] The tail is also used for balance when the
mouse is climbing or running, or as a base when the animal stands on its hind
legs (a behaviour known as "tripoding"), and to convey information
about the dominance status of an individual in encounters with other mice.[17]
In addition to the regular
pea-size thymus organ in the chest, house mice have a
second functional pinhead-size thymus organ in the neck next to the trachea.[18]
House mice usually run, walk, or
stand on all fours, but when eating, fighting, or orienting themselves, they
rear up on their hind legs with additional support from the tail - a behaviour
known as "tripoding". Mice are
good jumpers, climbers, and swimmers, and are generally considered to be thigmotactic, i.e. usually attempts to maintain contact with
vertical surfaces.
Mice are mostly crepuscular or nocturnal; they are averse
to bright lights. The average sleep time of a captive house mouse is reported
to be 12.5 hours per day.[23] They live in a wide variety of hidden places near food sources, and
construct nests from various soft materials. Mice are territorial, and one
dominant male usually lives together with several females and young. Dominant
males respect each other's territory and normally enter another's territory
only if it is vacant. If two or more males are housed together in a cage, they
will often become aggressive unless they have been raised together from birth.
House mice primarily feed on plant
matter, but are omnivorous. They will eat their own feces to acquire nutrients produced by bacteria in their intestines. House mice, like
most other rodents, do not vomit.
Mice are generally afraid of rats which often kill and eat mice, a behavior known as muricide. Despite
this, free-living populations of rats and mice do exist together in forest
areas in New Zealand, North America and elsewhere. House mice are
generally poor competitors and in most areas cannot survive away from human
settlements in areas where other small mammals, such as wood mice, are present.[24] However, in some areas (such as Australia), mice are able to coexist
with other small rodent species.[25]
Social behavior
The social behavior of the
house mouse is not rigidly fixed into species-specific patterns but is instead
adaptable to the environmental conditions, such as the availability of food and
space.[26][27] This adaptability allows house mice to
inhabit diverse areas ranging from sandy dunes to apartment buildings.[26]
House mice have two forms of
social behavior, the expression of which depends on the environmental context.
House mice in buildings and other urbanized areas with close proximity to
humans are known as commensal.[26] Commensal mice populations often have an
excessive food source resulting in high population densities and small home ranges.
This causes a switch from territorial behavior to a hierarchy of individuals.[26][28] When populations have an excess of food,
there is less female-female aggression, which usually occurs to gain access to
food or to prevent infanticide.[26] Male-male aggression occurs in commensal
populations, mainly to defend female mates and protect a small territory.[26][27] The high level of male-male aggression,
with a low female-female aggression level is common in polygamous populations.[29] The social unit of commensal house mouse
populations generally consists of one male and two or more females, usually
related.[29][30] These groups breed cooperatively, with the
females communally nursing. This cooperative breeding and rearing by related
females helps increase reproductive success. When no related females are
present, breeding groups can form from non-related females.[30]
In open areas such as shrubs
and fields, the house mouse population is known as noncommensal. These
populations are often limited by water or food supply and have large
territories.[27] Female-female aggression in the
noncommensal house mouse populations is much higher, reaching a level generally
attributed to free-ranging species. Male aggression is also higher in
noncommensal populations. In commensal populations, males come into contact
with other males quite frequently due to high population densities and
aggression must be mediated or the risk of injury becomes too great.[26]
Both commensal and noncommensal
house mouse males aggressively defend their territory and act to exclude all
intruders. Males mark their territory by scent marking with urine. In marked
territories, intruders showed significantly lower aggression than the territory
residents.[27] House mice show a male-biased dispersal;
males generally leave their birth sites and migrate to form new territories
whereas females generally stay and are opportunistic breeders rather than
seasonal.[31]
Touch[
Mice can sense surfaces and air
movements with their whiskers which are also used during thigmotaxis. If mice are blind from birth,
super-normal growth of the vibrissae occurs presumably as a compensatory
response,[38] or
if the vibrissae are absent, the use of vision is intensified.[39]
Vision
As primarily nocturnal animals,
house mice have little or no color vision. Their visual apparatus is
basically similar to that of humans, but differs markedly in at least one
respect — the ventral area of the mouse retina has a much greater density of ultraviolet-sensitive cones than other areas of the retina, although
the biological significance of this structure is unknown.[32][33][34]
Male house mice court females
by emitting characteristic ultrasonic calls in the 30 kHz–110 kHz
range. The calls are most frequent during courtship when the male is sniffing
and following the female; however, the calls continue after mating has begun,
at which time the calls are coincident with mounting behaviour. Males can be induced
to emit these calls by female pheromones. The vocalizations appear to differ
between individuals and have been compared to bird
songs because
of their complexity.[40] While females have the capability to
produce ultrasonic calls, they typically do not do so during mating behaviour.
Following copulation, female
mice will normally develop a copulation
plug which
prevents further copulation. This plug stays in place for some 24 hours. The gestation period is about 19–21 days, and they give
birth to a litter of 3–14 young (average six to eight). One female can have 5
to 10 litters per year, so the mouse population can increase very quickly.
Breeding occurs throughout the year. (However, animals living in the wild do
not reproduce in the colder months, even though they do not hibernate.)
The pups are born blind and
without fur or ears. The ears are fully developed by the fourth day, fur begins
to appear at about six days and the eyes open around 13 days after birth; the
pups are weaned at around 21 days. Females reach sexual maturity at about six
weeks of age and males at about eight weeks, but both can copulate as early as
five weeks.[41]
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