The Northwoods is home to two species of deer mice—the North American and White Footed.
Dr. Michael Cramer says both play key roles in the forest ecosystem. Cramer is the assistant director at the University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center in the Northwoods.
“They hold a really central role in the foods, the food chain or the food web,” said Cramer. “These deer mice are also important from a human perspective, because they serve as reservoirs for vector borne diseases. Lyme disease is the example that immediately comes to mind. They're not giving people Lyme disease, but they supply it to the ticks that then give it to the people or the deer or the other wildlife.”
Cramer is particularly interested in seasonal changes within and between the species.
He’s been trapping and tagging mice in the spring, summer, and now fall—looking at things like how long they live or how many females have had babies.
“There's lots of interesting population level questions that you can ask by utilizing this kind of trapping,” said Cramer.
Cramer will be talking about his research at this Thursday’s Science on Tap Minocqua. The talk will focus on the importance of studying mice.
“I'm also excited to share some new analysis that I did last week looking at seasonal changes and related to the really warm winter that we had in 2023/2024 and comparing that to other years to kind of understand how these long term climatic changes might affect mouse populations,” said Cramer.
He hopes people come away from the talk with a more positive view of mice.
Science on Tap Minocqua is this Thursday, October 2nd at 6:30 p.m. It’s at Rocky Reef Brewing Company in Woodruff.
You can also stream it online.
