The North American deermouse is nearly everywhere in Washington, and its 3,515 records make the point. Clark and Skamania counties, along the Columbia River in the south, hold most of them, 2,023 and 1,101, and the record spans 33 counties on both sides of the Cascades, from Whitman in the Palouse to Clallam on the Olympic Peninsula.
The classic mouse of the continent
Big-eyed, large-eared, and white-footed, the deermouse is the most widespread rodent in North America, at home in forest, shrub-steppe, meadow, and the occasional shed or cabin. It is nocturnal, feeding on seeds, berries, and insects and caching food against lean times, and it climbs well enough to forage off the ground, a habit that helps set it apart from the look-alike house mouse.
Slowing down, not sleeping through
Deermice do not truly hibernate, though they can drop into short bouts of torpor and hole up in nests during the coldest stretches. Washington’s records thin from November through February and build to a July crest that holds into September, matching the season when warm nights, ripening seed, and new litters put the most mice on the move.
Status in Washington
NatureServe ranks the North American deermouse S5, Secure, in Washington, and the species is native to the state. USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous here.
Full species profile
