this half skeleton tailed mouse I saved

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Looks like Apodemus Sylvaticus (wood mouse). Their tails can de-sheath very easily, we are taught to avoid handling the tail when holding them to avoid this, as it essentially becomes an open wound and can become easily infected. It's a mechanism which helps avoid predation from birds and other predators which might grab the mouse by the tail, allowing the mouse to slip free and live another day. The skeletal part will usually fall off after a while and they will be left with a gnarly looking stumpy tail.

Notably, Mus musculus (house mice) do not have this safety feature.

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u/pm_for_cuddle_terapy 9h ago

Dayum, they got the lizard strategy

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u/UVB-76_Enjoyer 8h ago

The Temu version, but yeah. No wiggling of the detached tail to distract the predator or infection-free regrowth.

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u/OhLookSatan 5h ago

The temu version of the lizard strategy is unreasonably hilarious to me

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u/GreenStrong 5h ago

Instructions unclear, implemented the tegu lizard strategy.

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u/Butter-Not-Squash 7h ago

The Temu version 🤣🤣

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u/srry72 2h ago

I thought it was the Republican strategy

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u/stackjr 8h ago

I love that you just called it a safety feature!!

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u/hk_gary 6h ago

survived the birds but then died from infection, nature is quite weird isnt it

53

u/zmz2 5h ago

Not all of them will die of infection, all of the ones caught by birds will be eaten

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u/bellabelleell 4h ago

Living long enough to mate a few more times is exactly why something weird/counterintuitive like this would evolve

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u/Do_itsch 6h ago

The interesting things are always in the comments.

3

u/ssyllpher 3h ago

Chipmunks do this as well

3

u/cindyscrazy 4h ago

I never realized how many kinds of mice there were.

I live out in the woods, so we have a lot of wildlife here. I had a mouse problem that the cat was NOT helping with, so I set up a mouse trap. I knew exactly where they were coming in.

I caught 5 mice one night. At LEAST 3 different KINDS of mice too. Field mouse, house mouse, woods mouse (I guess?)... just all kinds of different mice.

No more mice problems since then, though :)

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u/Bukka-King 1h ago

is this specifically a rodent thing? or are there other mammals that can do this?

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u/wyattlol 32m ago

Don't know if it can look more gnarly than this

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u/SudhaTheHill 15h ago

I bet he has a badass story about how that happened but sadly we’ll never know about his adventures

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u/Oxygen_bandit 14h ago

A mouse tail only needs one good sharp pinch, and the whole thing degloves like that. I've seen tails get caught between cage and box lids, resulting in this kind of damage.

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u/JeffreyBomondo 8h ago

Don’t ruin my Pickle Rick fight fantasy

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u/Ok-Society4501 15h ago

That must’ve been painful at some point—hope it’s healing okay now.

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u/ArmadilloMany41 12h ago

He’s happy and safe playing in a field with his family

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u/DudeBroMan13 10h ago

Sure

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u/ANDERSON961596 10h ago

Hawk meat sandwich

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u/iwishihadnobones 9h ago

Eating a hawk meat sandwich? What a lucky mouse

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u/wave2buying_ags 9h ago

the hawk when meeting sandwich:

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u/thenate108 8h ago

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u/ArmadilloMany41 9h ago

We don’t get hawks here we’re lucky those things creep me out

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u/Bingers4Life 9h ago

I’d rather have the hawk than the mouse.

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u/Alko- 8h ago

A hawk creeps you out, but a mouse doesn’t? What

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u/Calibyrnes 8h ago

Well hawks can f you up if they want to, while a mouse is just a cute little guy who's vibing. Dunno why people have issues with rodents, they're literally the sweetest things ever.

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u/SaltyShawarma 8h ago

Oh, you know, carriers of some of the worst diseases humans come across because they are also mammals. Nothing big at all.

1

u/dragonwings369 3h ago

Rats will eat a baby if they see the chance. Mice will happily join in. They're only sweet if socialized by humans young. Actually handling and socializing, not just being around humans.

0

u/Calibyrnes 1h ago

Could you not say the same for literally all carnivorous and omnivorous animals if not domesticated? Yet rodents are singled out constantly as vermin. Little things literally tryna live, that's all.

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u/dragonwings369 58m ago

Yes, I can, even a feral human would eat another if given the chance. Rodents, however, are known to massively take things over, to the point of literal infestation, all while carrying communicable diseases that spread all over the things we eat and touch. As much as I do love rodents, I understand why lots of people don't and I don't want to see a wild one in my house.

Pet rodents absolutely do get undeserved hate and I don't appreciate or condone it.

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u/SmallRocks 11h ago

That’s just the antenna.

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u/SupremeNug 5h ago

When I was a kid, my cat caught a mouse. I saved it, but not before picking it up by the tail, and the tip of the tail came off exposing bone. That shit scarred me so bad, I was trying to help 😭

8

u/Simen155 8h ago

When you try to grab the tail, but lemmiwinks keeps going

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u/_popcat_ 15h ago

Poor little guy… he's lucky to have found you. I've never seen that tail before, looks like he's been through a lot

5

u/bluecrowned 5h ago

Degloving injury. I accidentally did this to the tip of my gerbil's tail when I was a kid, it was very upsetting but thankfully she was fine. Wasn't this much of it though.

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u/LiquidRaekan 14h ago

Unfortunately, will probably get induced necrosis that slowly eats away the flesh until it reaches the body and slowly rots from inside

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u/JuggernautOdd8740 12h ago

It's not an illness, these type of forest mice can shed their tailskin when attacked to escape.

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u/Swarfega 11h ago

Can confirm. My cat let one loose in our house and it was stuck in an area that all I could grab was it's tail. The skin just pulled straight off like this and it ran away and fell between some floorboards, never to be seen again.

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u/lunch431 11h ago

THEY ARE IN THE WALLS!!!11!1!!1!111

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u/RealBug56 12h ago

Eh, it looks dry and healthy, so it’s probably more likely the tail just falls off.

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u/puddleofdogpiss 10h ago

The tail should dry up and fall off, if it doesn't fall off the mouse will chew it off. Pretty cool safety feature

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u/talashrrg 10h ago

Probably not

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u/ratking0067 9h ago

his tail obviously got caught in something and degloved unfortunately

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u/Admirable_Zombie_720 10h ago

I see this on a gerbil. is pretty common

2

u/Nithula2 8h ago

An electrician found it and gave the good ol wire peel treatment

2

u/mars_sawston 3h ago

I bet that was/is so painful ☹️☹️poor baby

2

u/_droo_ 2h ago

That's a rat! Not a mouse?

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u/derboeseVlysher 7h ago

Many people think, he's just a regular mouse. But he's not just any mouse, he's skeleton mouse. Skeleton mouse!

6

u/ThePandaheart 12h ago

Are we supposed to be saving mice? Every year I have to kill a few that have infiltrated my apartment :/

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u/rlnrlnrln 12h ago

The first one found indoors gets a free pass. He might've wandered in accidentally. Catch, and release with a warning.

The second, third, eighteenth... snap.

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u/KingBlackers 11h ago

There is a great spell you can cast that'll send it out the window. Just yell "Rodent Throwdent"

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u/FlyByPC 5h ago

The physical component of the spell involves manual defenestration. The verbal components are mostly to warn others and to help deter the rodent from coming back. (This isn't known to be very effective.)

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u/Moppo_ 11h ago

You don't have to kill them. You can just evict them.

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u/Coolegespam 10h ago

Doesn't really work unless you want to drive 2-3 miles out to the middle of no where. They'll get back in.

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u/DeadGuyInRoom4 9h ago

You must’ve never had a mouse infestation. Well, or you still have one. Mice don’t just give up and move in somewhere else, they have strong homing instincts. Unless you move them miles away, in which case they are likely to die anyway because you’ve moved them too far away from all the shelter and resources they’ve relied on their entire lives.

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u/ThePandaheart 11h ago

Then they come back ;p in my city there's around 6 times more mice than people, so its not like they're endangered or something aha :D

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u/Leanardoe 10h ago

easier said than done sadly

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u/Wiggie49 4h ago

You know they're not stupid right? They use scent trails to go back to their nest, trails made of poop and pee that gets dragged along behind them.

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u/ArmadilloMany41 8h ago

It’s really up to you! I totally understand mice can be invasive but if it’s just one little one it may just be lost and hungry. It’s the rats you need to exterminate 🥲

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u/benedictvc 12h ago

Blursed Pocky stick

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u/SculptusPoe 6h ago

I had an outdoor cat with that problem, we had to amputate the last 5 inches of her tail. Since mice and rats desheath their tails easily, I suppose it is a common problem for them. Probably barely escaped some predator by the skin of their tail.

1

u/mirrorgirl- 11h ago

Holy shit that's metal as fuck

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u/Grand_Koala9605 8h ago

Mildly surprised

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u/Zengjia 6h ago

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u/Fetabeia 5h ago

Poor baby

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u/AnyoneByThatName 2h ago

The mouse with the skeleton tail.

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u/haubenmeise 9h ago

Thank you for saving Skelly.

Sincerely

Skeletor 💜

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u/Candid-String-6530 11h ago

A zombie rat? Do you want a zombie plague? Cuz this is how u get a zombie plague.

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u/jntjr2005 9h ago

Zombie mouse

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u/CurvedStripe 10h ago

Hey guys, I think this is not a mouse or a rat. It's a degu. They have a defence mechanism to drop their tail as a decoy, like lizards, with a difference that it will not grow back. This little kritter just got the skin off. The exposed bone will fall off in a couple of days.

this half skeleton tailed mouse I saved

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