Happy Birthday Mickey!

The most famous mouse of all made his debut on November 18, 1928, in Steamboat Willie.

Walt Disney, who provided Mickey's first voice, had originally intended to call him Mortimer.

Imagine the theme song:

M-O-R-T Tea and scones anyone?
I-M-E-R Are you sure?

Page 56 Meme

Thanks to QuakerDave, I finally have a meme I can do.

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions on your blog (or Facebook wall).
* Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Here's mine:

"Stereocilia increase the surface area of the epithelium for absorption."

Oh, what a fascinating life I lead...

Tag, you're it.

It's Alive!

Scientists in Japan have succeeded in producing healthy cloned mice from mice that had been frozen for up to 16 years.

Usually, when you clone an animal from a frozen specimen, that specimen has been intentionally frozen for future cloning. That means great care was taken to prevent the cells from rupturing and a cryoprotective agent (like polyvinylpyrrolidone or glycerol) was added to keep the membranes intact.

In this study, there was no cryoprotectant and the cells were not viable. The investigators managed to produce their clones using just the nuclear material, and not living cells.

This means that it may be possible to produce living clones from frozen specimens of animals that are endangered, or even extinct.

Like the woolly mammoth.


Here's the paper.

Lab humans

Remember those mice on Mount Everest?

There may be a good reason for them to limit their mountain-climbing expeditions. It might shrink their brains.

Scientists have studied human mountain climbers and found reduced volume and density of white and gray matter in areas of the brain associated with motor activity.

It is not known if this phenomenon is relevant to mouse health, but it suggests that mice should use caution when participating in high-altitude activities.

Going to the happy place

You can train a mouse to stress out on cue by having it associate a particular sound with an unpleasant experience, like a mild electric shock. A group of researchers at Columbia University did the opposite. They taught mice "learned safety" by having training them to associate a sound with the LACK of an electric shock.

Then they put the mice in the water and let them swim around. After a couple of minutes, mice usually stop moving around, apparently in despair, having lost the will to live. At least that's how scientists interpret that behavior.

As reported here (Here's the paper), mice trained in "learned safety" can regain their will to live when they hear their "happy sound" and they start swimming again. Apparently, mice can be trained to overcome depression.

And their brains showed some of the same biological changes seen in mice given antidepressant drugs.

Does this mouse have a happy place?

Feathered mice

Because of its geographical isolation, New Zealand has a unique population of native animals. Until fossil evidence showed otherwise in 2006, it was believed that there were no mammals native to New Zealand that did not swim (marine mammals) or fly (bats).

No mice.

But there was an ecological niche that, in the rest of the world, was occupied by mice. In New Zealand, that niche was occupied by the flightless Stephen's Island wren (Xenicus lyalli). Its Latin name is taken from the lighthouse keeper who first described it scientifically, David Lyall.

The wren became extinct in 1894. Legend has it that David Lyall's cat, Tibbles, was single-handedly (single-pawedly) responsible for the demise of the Stephen's Island wren. It is more likely that the wren was hunted to extinction by feral cats or rats introduced to New Zealand by human settlers.

And who arrived to occupy that now-empty niche? Immigrant mice.

If your mouse is getting flabby...

Agility training for hamsters (and rats, gerbils, mice and rabbits)

From the Milwaukee Examiner...

POSTED September 20, 6:46 PM

Teri Webster - Pet Examiner

Running Bear likes to spin his wheels.

Every day, he runs for miles on his hamster wheel and rides a motorcycle.

Well, he runs inside the large front wheel of his toy motorcycle, and that propels it around a small track.

But Running Bear is up for a new challenge, so he plans to start agility training.

His owner, Marna Kazmaier of Belle Fourche, SD, says that hamsters, rats, gerbils, mice and rabbits can learn to run -- or at least meander --over an agility course.

Many people may not know that hamsters can be trained just like other pets. At least that's what some proud "hammie" owners say.

The good news is that you don't have to teach them to bite. They do that on their own. Agility training takes a little more work.

Running Bear runs in the front wheel of his motorcycle.

"It's a lot of fun and easier than most people might think to train the little animals to run a course," said Kazmaier.

If you put a treat in your hand, most hamsters will follow it, Kazmaier explains.

"Hamsters, as a whole, are not agility course runners," said Kazmaier. "They kind of meander over the course, but they're cute all the same."

Hamsters do not jump over obstacles but climb over them so the pieces need to be stable, especially for bigger males, said Kazmaier.

More information on hamster agility training is available here.

Kazmaier also has Web sites for training gerbils, mice, rabbits and rats; "Bible Donkeys," and working goats and llamas.

Apparently, there isn't much to do in South Dakota...

"I had a chicken I taught to do a few tricks," Kazmaier said. "Training animals is kinda my thing."

According to the Web site MyHammie.com, you can teach your hamster to stand on its hind legs. Take a sunflower and hold it over the hamster's head and say the word "stand."

Eventually, you can just tell the hamster to stand without a treat, the Web site claims.

Right. And I can teach a "hammie" to fly.