Colorado holds more documented records of the northern grasshopper mouse than any other state, and the geography behind that number makes sense once you look at what this predator-mouse actually needs.
Open ground from the northeastern plains to the San Luis Valley
The heaviest concentration sits in Logan County’s shortgrass prairie on the far northeastern plains, with a second cluster running down the lower Arkansas River valley through Las Animas, Bent, and Baca counties near Comanche National Grassland. A separate pocket of records comes from Alamosa County in the San Luis Valley, a high desert basin walled in by mountains on every side. All three settings share the same open, sparsely vegetated ground this mouse needs to hunt across, even though they sit in very different corners of the state.
A mouse that hunts scorpions and calls like a tiny wolf
Unlike most mice, this species is a genuine predator, taking grasshoppers, beetles, crickets, and even scorpions, with some resistance to the sting that would deter other small hunters. At night, an adult may rear back and give a long, high call across open ground, a territorial habit that’s earned it comparisons to a miniature howl.
Status in Colorado
NatureServe ranks the species S5, secure, in Colorado, and the state’s database treats it as native across its mapped range here. Records run heaviest from June through October, tracking the warm months when this open-country hunter is most active and most often picked up by trapping and survey work.
Full species profile
