Smallish nocturnal rodents climbing trees in Miami?
Hello all,
A quick question – I was in Florida at the weekend and on Saturday night I was staking out a Florida Bonneted Bat roost (and I saw some.. trip report to follow).
Wile I was waiting for the bats I saw a rodent moving through the upper branches of a large strangler fig 30 minutes after sunrise. I didn’t want to take my eye off the bats so didn’t manage to get a decent look…(a bat in the roost, is worth two in the bush!) .. but what could it have been? Any suggestions … it seemed quite a bit too small for a Woodrat (or Rattus sp)… perhaps a Southern Flying Squirrel? Anyone….
jon
5 Comments
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vdinets
I’ve never seen SFS in CG, despite doing many nights of spotlighting there. If it was a standard mouse size, it was a cotton mouse, if larger – a roof rat.
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Jon Hall
Thanks Vladimir. I have never seen a cotton mouse and this was just a silhouette of something … definitely smaller than a rattus though
Are Cotton Mice common in that kind of habitat?
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vdinets
In S Florida they are the only native mouse, so they are common pretty much everywhere except in open wetlands.
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vdinets
Depends on the location.Southern flying squirrel is common south to Palm Beach and Ft. Myers and theoretically occurs down to Homestead, but is absent from the Everglades. Golden Mouse occurs south to Highland Hammock State Park, but seems to be very rare on both coasts. Cotton Mouse can be seen in trees sometimes, and is the only mouse common in the Everglades. Roof Rat also occurs throughout – could be a juvenile.