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Name : southerly grasshopper computer mouse ( Onychomys torridus )
Where it last : southwesterly U.S. and northwestern Mexico
A southern grasshopper mouse howling to mark its territory in the Chihuahua Desert, Mexico.
What is eats : Scorpions , insects , other rodents and some works fabric
Why it ’s awesome : The southern grasshopper shiner is a carnivore that ’s largely immune to scorpion malice , and yammer at the synodic month before it kills like a tiny wolf .
This mouse species is an extremely aggressive predator andwill approach pretty much anything movingthat is n’t importantly bigger than itself . It even recur to cannibalism when food is scarce . It stalks raven before seizing it , then kill with a bite to the school principal .
One of its favorite prey is the Arizona bark scorpion ( Centruroides sculpturatus ) — whose venom ispotent enough to kill humankind .
Related : A war of the rats was cod in North America decades before the Declaration of Independence
To get around this , the southern grasshopper mousereduces the venom ’s effectsby shutting down the chemical duct that transmits the pain signal to the learning ability when that particular venom is present . This means they are essentially asleep to the pain — although investigator still do n’t knowwhy the toxin is n’t lethal to them .
The mouse is also able to seize with teeth off the Scorpio the Scorpion ’s tail , rendering it incapable of sting .
The southern grasshopper mouse is also celebrated for yaup at the moonshine — standing up on its hind legs , pointing its nose into the air and producinghigh - pitched vocalizationthrough its mouth thatcan be heard for up to 330 feet ( 100 meters ) .
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Their voice are produced in the same way human being talk and Hugo Wolf roar — by creating tissue vibration induced by airflow , according to a report published in 2017 . The team also discovered these mice have a bell - shape vocal nerve pathway that increase vocal intensity .
The howl , which is often create just before a kill , is conceive to help mark the mouse ’s territorial dominion . The southern hopper mouse is fiercely territorial and mostly solitary — while members of this metal money can live in male - female pairs , this often end in one kill the other , according toAnimal Diversity Web .
