The muridae family.

Part four the house mouse.

Unlike other mice, the house mouse has a strong smell and greasy fur. It taints the places it lives in, which include houses, warehouses, hospitals and other public buildings. Mice also leave their black droppings and their urine wherever they have been, which carry diseases and parasites, they also cause damage by their gnawing. Although house mice only live for about eighteen months, and many die in their first winter, it is hard for humans to get rid of them. They breed so fast that in one summer the mice from one nest will have multiplied many times over. Females bear from five to ten litters in one year with each litter containing up to six young. The young will leave the nest after about three weeks, the females are then ready to breed after about another three weeks. House mice normally live within a couple of metres of their food supply, moving on when food is short. Mice have chisel like front teeth that grow all of the time,  they use to gnaw their way through wires. Many different kinds of stored foods will attract house mice, which is mostly active at night. Alert and nimble, it has prominent ears, big eyes and a pointed face. Its grey-brown coat is greasy and glistening and its tail long and scaly. The male is about seven inches in length including tail, with the female being slightly smaller.  They are widespread, mostly found around buildings but may also be found in hedgerows and on farmland. Males will fight to establish social dominance and a territory. Highly adaptable, house mice can live in all sorts of places. Some even thrive in frozen meat stores, developing longer fur to keep them warm. Where food is plentiful house mice may live in fields and hedgerows during the summer. But few will survive cold weather outdoors, most spend the winter in buildings.