Trader and Longfoot

Chapter 14: A Trader and a Handsome Fellow

The next several chapters are all devoted to the little rodents - rats, mice, and voles - which account for over 1/4 of all the mammal species in North America.  According to Kaufman, the Brown Rat (Burgess Chapter 13), the House Rat, and the House Mouse are responsible for most of the damage and disease caused by small rodents.  Interestingly, they are all three Old World rodents (a.k.a. they came over to our country with the European settlers). 

Rats, mice, and voles are all in the family Muridae.  There are a few exceptions to this.  First, the Kangaroo rats and mice and pocket mice belong to the family Heteromyidae.  Second, the jumping mice belong to their own special family Dipodidae. In our taxonomy I started including Subfamily names to help distinguish between groups.  I don't expect the kids to learn all the different Subfamily names, but it is helpful for me to see the connections.

Burgess doesn't ever use the term vole, so to accommodate for this exemption I use the present day name for the heading.  For example, in chapter 15 Burgess calls it a Meadow Mouse, but I use the name from my field guide, Meadow Vole.  Voles belong to the subfamily Arvicolinae, and are generally fuzzier, and shorter-tailed than mice.  Voles are known by the paths and runways they make through grasses and ground coverings.  The Meadow Vole is known as being the most prolific Mammal on earth!  This is hard to believe, but according to Kaufman female Meadow Voles can give birth to up to 10 young every 3 weeks.

Little Robber

Cotton Rat

* We didn't give individual attention to Little Robber since Burgess only briefly mentions him at the beginning of the chapter.

Trader

Eastern Woodrat (Neotoma floridian)

We used this image of an Eastern Woodrat for our coloring page.

1. He collects objects.

2. He never steals, but always trades.

3. When he is alarmed or disturbed he drums on the ground with his hind feet.

Longfoot

Ord's Kangaroo (Dipodomys ordii)

We free-handed this one using this tutorial.

1. His tail is longer than his head and body together, and it helps him balance when in the air.

2. His hind legs and feet are big.

3. He gets along without drinking.

4. He has pockets on the outsides of his cheeks.