Rare native mouse like dumpling on legs found in Blue Mountains
February 25, 2025 6:38 AM Subscribe
Rare native mouse like dumpling on legs found in Blue Mountains. Ecologists set up tea strainers filled with peanut butter and oats in the Wollemi National Park to attract the New Holland mouse which has not been seen in the area for 20 years. (Australia)
Ya it's a cute wee mouse but I'm not seeing the dumpling either. Also loved the "for some reason they love peanut butter and oats" as if humans would find this inexplicable. Like yeah bro same
posted by potrzebie at 6:51 AM on February 25 [11 favorites]
posted by potrzebie at 6:51 AM on February 25 [11 favorites]
My day did not need to start with a promise of dumpling mouse and just seeing a regular mouse.
posted by Atreides at 7:17 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
posted by Atreides at 7:17 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
Look, all I’m saying is that my likelihood of clicking the link shot up by 500% when I read the phrase, “dumpling on legs”. Well played, ABC 🥟
posted by btfreek at 7:18 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]
posted by btfreek at 7:18 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]
mouse-like dumpling on legs
posted by ginger.beef at 7:20 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
posted by ginger.beef at 7:20 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
But if you accept the proposition that all mice look like dumplings on legs,
posted by saturday_morning at 7:23 AM on February 25 [7 favorites]
posted by saturday_morning at 7:23 AM on February 25 [7 favorites]
A tea strainer filled with peanut butter and oats is how Mrs. Guy gets my attention when she needs to tell me something.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 7:55 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 7:55 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]
Now we're dumpling shaming? Poor wee mouse indeed. No wonder it's been hiding for twenty years. Let it enjoy the peanut butter without uncalled for comments.
posted by BlueHorse at 8:02 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
posted by BlueHorse at 8:02 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
the mouse in the images accompanying the ABC article resembles every mouse I have seen, ever
is such the power of the word 'dumpling'? I mean, I would've clicked the link either way but I'm starting to wonder if we've stumbled across some potent magic here.. maybe the solution to a big part of our current situation is simply printing up millions of t-shirts with TRUMP HATES DUMPLINGS and let the magic take care of things
posted by ginger.beef at 8:22 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]
is such the power of the word 'dumpling'? I mean, I would've clicked the link either way but I'm starting to wonder if we've stumbled across some potent magic here.. maybe the solution to a big part of our current situation is simply printing up millions of t-shirts with TRUMP HATES DUMPLINGS and let the magic take care of things
posted by ginger.beef at 8:22 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]
Godzilla had a stroke while reading this.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 8:40 AM on February 25
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 8:40 AM on February 25
do not eat the furry dumpling
posted by supermedusa at 8:43 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 8:43 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]
Needless to say, my mental image of a dumpling mouse was way more horrifying than the actual reality.
Look, it’s an Australian mouse. It probably wants to kill you, but it has not yet evolved the means to do so.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:44 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
Look, it’s an Australian mouse. It probably wants to kill you, but it has not yet evolved the means to do so.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:44 AM on February 25 [6 favorites]
srsly tho, it's great that these little peanut butter piggies are ok and someone is helping them. #teamdumpling
posted by supermedusa at 8:44 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
posted by supermedusa at 8:44 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
"Rare native mouse like dumpling on legs found in Blue Mountains"
Rare
(native)
mouse-like dumpling --
on legs found in
Blue Mountains
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:38 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
Rare
(native)
mouse-like dumpling --
on legs found in
Blue Mountains
posted by AzraelBrown at 9:38 AM on February 25 [3 favorites]
brought to you by Studio Ghibli
posted by ginger.beef at 9:47 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
posted by ginger.beef at 9:47 AM on February 25 [1 favorite]
Well, I love you, lil dumpling mouse
posted by Kitteh at 9:47 AM on February 25 [9 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 9:47 AM on February 25 [9 favorites]
But if you accept the proposition that all mice look like dumplings on legs,
AS I DO
honestly, that mouse photo is just a mouse as they look newly when captured in a trap: a little wet, more than a little disheveled, not having a mousy good time. This image looks significantly more dumplingesque. So does this one. House mice (who closely resemble these guys, just with slightly smaller ears and eyes) can get pretty dumplingesque, too.
Peanut butter and oats is pretty standard wild rodent bait. I can confirm from my one sad field season that it makes acceptable human bait, too. Most rodents are way more into peanut butter than cheese, and the oats help to keep the peanut butter from sticking everywhere, lower cost, and add an additional carbohydrate draw.
This species is super fucking cool, by the way, and had previously been thought to have gone extinct for almost a century before being rediscovered in 1967. It is apparently also known as a pookila--adorable--and is known to be found more frequently in areas that have been disturbed by fire (though see for a complication on that), so the recent abundance after the horrific wildfires is awesome.
Australian mice generally are really neat because of what they can tell us about murine evolution. The Murinae are the family of Old World rats and mice that include our good old familiar domestic pests house mice (which these guys really do keenly resemble) and Norway rats. About two thirds of that enormous subfamily is native to Southeast Asia and the Indo-Australian archipelago, is the thing... and the Indo-Australian archipelago (including the Phillipines, Australia, New Guinea, Sulawesi, the lesser Sunda islands, and the Malukus) includes some of the most terrifyingly forbidding geography in the world--enough that the famous sharp changes in biogeographical composition have lent their name to Wallace's Line, alongside three or four other Lines or Rules, in an effort to explain them in terms of evolutionary biology.
This is probably what kept marsupial species alive: the heavy barriers to travel and migration prevented placental species from getting into Australia and outcompeting them, with some notable exceptions (i.e.: dingoes, humans). Dingoes and humans, however, benefited from human tools and boats when traveling to Australia, which these rodents did not have access to. And yet the clade crossed back and forth several times across the course of its development, making it into Australia itself twice: once about 5 million years ago and once about 1 million years ago. Bats are the only other mammalian clade to have achieved the crossing without access to thumbs. Isn't that cool?
One of the things I really love about rodents is that they are so variable from place to place, so that you can often use them as a great case study for ways that independent evolutionary pressures can drive convergence. I didn't know much about Australian native rodent species before this post, and I'm going to have so much fun seeing what I can dig out of the literature on Pseudomys for the rest of the day.
posted by sciatrix at 11:02 AM on February 25 [26 favorites]
AS I DO
honestly, that mouse photo is just a mouse as they look newly when captured in a trap: a little wet, more than a little disheveled, not having a mousy good time. This image looks significantly more dumplingesque. So does this one. House mice (who closely resemble these guys, just with slightly smaller ears and eyes) can get pretty dumplingesque, too.
Peanut butter and oats is pretty standard wild rodent bait. I can confirm from my one sad field season that it makes acceptable human bait, too. Most rodents are way more into peanut butter than cheese, and the oats help to keep the peanut butter from sticking everywhere, lower cost, and add an additional carbohydrate draw.
This species is super fucking cool, by the way, and had previously been thought to have gone extinct for almost a century before being rediscovered in 1967. It is apparently also known as a pookila--adorable--and is known to be found more frequently in areas that have been disturbed by fire (though see for a complication on that), so the recent abundance after the horrific wildfires is awesome.
Australian mice generally are really neat because of what they can tell us about murine evolution. The Murinae are the family of Old World rats and mice that include our good old familiar domestic pests house mice (which these guys really do keenly resemble) and Norway rats. About two thirds of that enormous subfamily is native to Southeast Asia and the Indo-Australian archipelago, is the thing... and the Indo-Australian archipelago (including the Phillipines, Australia, New Guinea, Sulawesi, the lesser Sunda islands, and the Malukus) includes some of the most terrifyingly forbidding geography in the world--enough that the famous sharp changes in biogeographical composition have lent their name to Wallace's Line, alongside three or four other Lines or Rules, in an effort to explain them in terms of evolutionary biology.
This is probably what kept marsupial species alive: the heavy barriers to travel and migration prevented placental species from getting into Australia and outcompeting them, with some notable exceptions (i.e.: dingoes, humans). Dingoes and humans, however, benefited from human tools and boats when traveling to Australia, which these rodents did not have access to. And yet the clade crossed back and forth several times across the course of its development, making it into Australia itself twice: once about 5 million years ago and once about 1 million years ago. Bats are the only other mammalian clade to have achieved the crossing without access to thumbs. Isn't that cool?
One of the things I really love about rodents is that they are so variable from place to place, so that you can often use them as a great case study for ways that independent evolutionary pressures can drive convergence. I didn't know much about Australian native rodent species before this post, and I'm going to have so much fun seeing what I can dig out of the literature on Pseudomys for the rest of the day.
posted by sciatrix at 11:02 AM on February 25 [26 favorites]
^ This is what I come to Metafilter for. Awesome knowledge from those in the field! ^
posted by Kitteh at 11:07 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 11:07 AM on February 25 [4 favorites]
I'm not saying that it's not a cute mouse! I'm just saying that I am a big fan of dumplings and I am relieved, nay, delighted when those dumplings come to the table looking not at all like mice. If the mice want some dumplings, maybe we can cut a deal.
posted by Frowner at 11:34 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 11:34 AM on February 25 [2 favorites]
Coincidentally I am also shaped like a dumpling and can be lured out by peanut butter.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:15 PM on February 25 [4 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 12:15 PM on February 25 [4 favorites]
I'm not saying that it's not a cute mouse!
oh sure, but where I'm from you can't just walk "hey dumpling butt" back
#micehavefeelingstoo
posted by ginger.beef at 12:27 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]
oh sure, but where I'm from you can't just walk "hey dumpling butt" back
#micehavefeelingstoo
posted by ginger.beef at 12:27 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]
I read the title as "Rare native mouse like DUMPING on legs found in Blue Mountains" and parsed it as a story about a rare individual mouse who enjoys pooping on legs, but only legs from the Blue Mountains.
This was not that story.
posted by mcduff at 12:39 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]
This was not that story.
posted by mcduff at 12:39 PM on February 25 [1 favorite]
Best of All Possible Webs
posted by ginger.beef at 12:41 PM on February 25
posted by ginger.beef at 12:41 PM on February 25
Dingoes and humans, however, benefited from human tools and boats when traveling to Australia, which these rodents did not have access to.
Not with that attitude, they didn't.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:36 PM on February 25
Not with that attitude, they didn't.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 1:36 PM on February 25
Y'all called it the pookla?
If I hadn't just seen photos of a pookla, I would still insist it was the cutest animal in the world based on name alone. When I read pookla, in the back of my mind, 10,000 people declared it kawaii, in one voice.
If it wasn't for wildlife protection laws, I could solve the world pookla shortage in about a week. I'd send them to Japan - they'd have a pookla breeding program and a giant metal statue overnight, and pooka-related cartoon franchises before you could blink.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 2:15 PM on February 25 [3 favorites]
If I hadn't just seen photos of a pookla, I would still insist it was the cutest animal in the world based on name alone. When I read pookla, in the back of my mind, 10,000 people declared it kawaii, in one voice.
If it wasn't for wildlife protection laws, I could solve the world pookla shortage in about a week. I'd send them to Japan - they'd have a pookla breeding program and a giant metal statue overnight, and pooka-related cartoon franchises before you could blink.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 2:15 PM on February 25 [3 favorites]
That is uncomfortably close to my area. So I guess I'm now going to have to (checks notes) look at its incisors and sniff it for mousey odor in order to figure out if I have regular mice or special mice. Oh good lord. Just this once, can I please have nothing amazing in my shed. I'm frogged and snaked and spidered out right now.
posted by ninazer0 at 11:19 PM on February 25 [3 favorites]
posted by ninazer0 at 11:19 PM on February 25 [3 favorites]
Awwww. Someone needs a platypus!
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:01 AM on February 26 [2 favorites]
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 10:01 AM on February 26 [2 favorites]
So I guess I'm now going to have to (checks notes) look at its incisors and sniff it for mousey odor in order to figure out if I have regular mice or special mice.
I guarantee that you have boring old house mice, unfortunately. While these Pseudomys guys look a whole lot like house mice, they don't behave much like them, and they only appear to breed in big communal sand burrows. Most Pseudomys are pretty weird, specialized little creatures, and I'd be very surprised to see specialists moving into human houses to exploit them--that tends to be a generalist response to humans moving into an area, and house mice are already inhabiting that niche very effectively.
please do not hold up a wild-captured mouse to your nose and sniff it or inspect its incisors very carefully, mice are very prone to carrying zoonotic infections that can cross over to humans and while I don't think hantavirus is quite the risk over to y'all that it would be in North America, there are enough nasty spillovery type events in Aus to warrant being very careful with maintaining barriers between humans and wild rodents.
posted by sciatrix at 10:49 AM on February 26 [4 favorites]
I guarantee that you have boring old house mice, unfortunately. While these Pseudomys guys look a whole lot like house mice, they don't behave much like them, and they only appear to breed in big communal sand burrows. Most Pseudomys are pretty weird, specialized little creatures, and I'd be very surprised to see specialists moving into human houses to exploit them--that tends to be a generalist response to humans moving into an area, and house mice are already inhabiting that niche very effectively.
please do not hold up a wild-captured mouse to your nose and sniff it or inspect its incisors very carefully, mice are very prone to carrying zoonotic infections that can cross over to humans and while I don't think hantavirus is quite the risk over to y'all that it would be in North America, there are enough nasty spillovery type events in Aus to warrant being very careful with maintaining barriers between humans and wild rodents.
posted by sciatrix at 10:49 AM on February 26 [4 favorites]
sciatrix: I am relieved to hear that - somehow that didn't seem to crop up in the info I panic-read through. And with my luck lately... JustSayNoDawg: how many spider babies would you like? I just safely relocated a couple of dozen but there's still way too many loose in my bathroom. Alternatively, I can send you Agatha - assuming you have enough space for her.
posted by ninazer0 at 2:37 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]
posted by ninazer0 at 2:37 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]
Mod note: Hey thanks sciatrix for dropping some knowledge about mice on us! We added it to the sidebar and Best Of Blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:56 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:56 PM on February 26 [2 favorites]
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posted by Frowner at 6:42 AM on February 25 [8 favorites]