Friday, March 26, 2010

Not a Mouse, nor a Rat, but a Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii )




We knew straight away we'd been invaded by critters once more when our blind guinea pig, Boofhead started making his weird gumping sound again.

We suspected more mice in the house, but we couldn't find any. Then, one night, I came home to find what I though was a rat on my kitchen floor. It looked at me, then bolted up the bench and scampered behind the microwave.



Right, I though. I'll set the safe trap and evict it back to the bush. I positioned the two-dollar plastic safe-trap in the kitchen, but I couldn't sleep, so I went to my office to do some editing of my latest manuscript instead. Five minutes later, the furry brown critter joined me. It just sat there in the middle of the room, staring at me. I froze, but stared back at it, then it scurried behind the couch. I jumped up, grabbed the trap from the kitchen, and brought it back to my office. I closed the door and placed the trap in the corner.



I carried on with my writing until I heard a scratching noise behind me. I turned around to see this cheeky little critter, boldly scratching at the door. It was bigger than a mouse, but smaller than a rat. Its head went flat as it tried to squeeze under the door, but it couldn't seem to flatten it enough to get under. I've never seen a mouse or rat with a flat head. (Was it an alien?) Its nose was pointed and it had bulbous brown eyes. Suddenly, it leaped onto the wall and peered over the corner of a bookcase.  Ah, I though. You're a little Antechinus.



If you look closely, you'll see his feet stuck to the brick wall. One way to find out if it was an Antechinus was to to check the big toes on its hind feet. Sure enough, this little creature had five toes on his back feet, but the big toe was shorter with no nail. Also, they have no musty odour like mice. In fact they don't seem to smell at all. Their diet consists of insects, small lizards and berries. They have teeth like a canine, not like a rodent and their ears look kind off frilly. Their poop is long, skinny and black. I think these little critters are Brown Antechinus (Antechinus stuartii.)





So how did he get into our home? We didn't have a clue. We have a full brick house, built by my husband and myself. We thought we'd made it mouse proof. Well, I caught the tiny fellow and took it into the woods, not too far from our house. I wanted to keep it in its own territory. Trouble was, I took my three-year-old grandson too, and when I set the critter free under a bush, it darted out and ran straight up my grandson's leg. He screamed as it bounced of his tummy and leaped onto the trunk of a tree. After calming the toddler, I photographed the animal, and explained to my grandson that it was only a tiny animal and it was scared, just like him. He understood, but then wanted to catch the little fellow, but it ran to the top of the tree.




Since that day, a week ago, I've captured three more antechinus in our house. How they got in, I don't know, but suspect the mother was pregnant. And, from what I've read, the females mate with many males, producing as many as ten babies in one pregnancy. Yipes! And from different fathers too. The babies are carried in an open like pouch, and they cling to their mother's nipples for about eight weeks. Woa!  I caught another one this morning and I'm wondering how long they've been sneaking around our house. Maybe it was an antichinus that cleaned up the spiders from the ceiling, and not my husband after all. Okay, I'm a slack housekeeper, I do write, you know.


It looks like I'll be going on another walk to the big old dam to set the fourth antichinus free in the bush. I hope they don't find their way back to our house. They have flat heads and can squeeze into small gaps.

Please be careful when poisoning mice, you may be accidently poisoning these beautiful, Australian native creatures. They seem so friendly and will come up to your feet and stare at you, as if begging for food. They hated being trapped in a box and seemed so happy when release back to the wild. I feel privileged to have met them. I hope you enjoy the photos on videos.

Looks like I have another Molly Gumnut book to write.

Feel free to leave a comment below.

11 comments:

  1. Trish, how awesome!!!!! I'm so glad you were able to have such a great experience with these critters! You are such a friend to the animals! I loved the pictures and th story. I hope your grandson recovers form the experience! He has a great story to tell his friends, now, that's for sure! Can't wait to hear other stories about this batch of young ones in your house!
    Marti

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  2. Thanks for visiting my blog, Marti. I can't believe one of those little critters went into Boofhead's cage last night and left a parcel. LOL. Not! I can't seem to catch him or her in the safe trap, but I'll keep trying. I added some Insectavore and chicken, maybe that will catch him/her. I hope so.

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  3. Yikes. It looks a lot like a mouse. We had a problem with mice, but once we got a cat, I haven't seen any since.

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  4. Hi Theresa. Thanks for visiting. Yes, they do look a lot like mice, but they're bigger than mice and smaller than rats.

    We caught the last one yesterday, hopefully. They have teeth like a dog, not like a rodent and their heads are bigger in proportion. I have no idea how they got into the house, but they can flatten themselves and get into small places. LOL. Not!

    I don't have a cat becuse of the wildlife around here.

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  5. Trish, that's awesome! I love the pictures and this blog! Actually I think the critter is adorable!

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  6. Great story. Sounds like you're being invaded. Hopefully no more of them will show up over the weekend.

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  7. Yipes! They are back. It's antechinus season and I have more in my house. Nooooo!

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  8. OK so this is a bit old now and we have a/some antechinus resident in our house. They are very shy and it took us ages to work out it/they weren't mice. But what do you use for bait in the trap to catch them? Their nests usually involve a lovely clean pile of linen or something white and beautiful which end up black and mouldy, so we feel they should be returned to their happy ourtside home.

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    1. Prue, I used pieces of chicken, peanut butter, or best of all, they loved guinea pig seed bar. :) We had guinea pigs at the time and the antichinus used to get in their cage at night and pinch their treat. So that's what I used to catch them in the safe trap. Good luck if you haven't caught them yet.

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  9. It seems that we may have one too! Something was eating a hole in a banana in a fruit bowl on the kitchen table. We laid out a ring of flour dust around it last night and took some photos. This morning there were numerous 5 toed prints in the flour as well as fainter ones on the chair it climbed up. The fun has just begun!

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    1. Hi, Ian, have you caught them yet? If they have babies, they have many. I once caught 16 antechinus on our house, then after catching them and releasing them back into the woods, we found out where they were getting in. The little blighters had chewed/scratched their way through a concrete slab. Yes they did. It took them a while to dig through and when we heard the scratching, we could never work out where it was coming from. They came in through the corner in our lounger room, but right behind a bookshelf so we didn't see the chewed, ripped carpet. Very smart littl critters. The first I saw of them was when I heard a noise in the bedroom, a box falling over in the wardrobe. I turned on the lamp and up there on the ceiling staring down at me was what I first thought was a rat. But then it ran upside down across the ceiling, then dropped like a ball to the floor and bolted under the bed. LOL. Took us weeks to capture that one. You can tell if you have antechinus because their poo is curly at the end, unlike a rat or mouse. Good luck catching the little blighters. They can run up your body in a flash. :)

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