I know people like tales and stories about the magnificent wildlife SA国际影视传媒� big and small SA国际影视传媒� who call the North home.
So, this week I thought I would write about the mighty mouse. We have a few species of them living here, but most people donSA国际影视传媒檛 subdivide them. A mouse is a mouse. They have big ears, long tails and like to sneak into cabins and houses to make their homes.
I looked it up on the internet and it said there were five to eight mice per hectare and there are a hundred hectares per square kilometre, so that would be 500 to 800 mice. The NWT is 1,171,916 square kilometres so that would be over 500 million mice! They just donSA国际影视传媒檛 get the recognition they deserve.
Now, the number of mice in any given hectare can vary considerably. I stayed in a cabin one spring that was infested with mice. After one ran across my face while I was trying to sleep, I went to war. I trapped 27 mice in three days. After that, I would get one every two or three days. So that cabin, far smaller than a hectare, had a whole lot of mice.
Mice aerate the soil with their burrows and nests. They fertilize the soil with their poop. They help groom the forest. They eat insects, spread seeds and they feed a whole lot of predators, such as foxes, wolves, owls, hawks and all sorts of other critters. So, they are an important part of our ecosystem, and the place just wouldnSA国际影视传媒檛 be the same without them. I think they deserve a big statue to celebrate their existence.
Also, we could have a yearly event to celebrate mice. A mice event stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, which can certainly benefit the tourist and hospitality industry. Just imagine a big yearly festival to honour our mice, voles, shrews and other rodents.
One spring, when most of the snow had gone but the lakes still had ice on them, I went out to the bush to do a job on some mineral claims. I set up my tent right on the forest floor. I had been there three or four days and went through a little bad weather SA国际影视传媒� cold, wet and windy. During the daySA国际影视传媒檚 work, I didnSA国际影视传媒檛 see a single animal or bird because of the weather. That night after dinner, I was lying on my cot reading a book. I heard something shuffling about on the ground and saw a mouse nosing around looking for food. I named him or her Herman. I am not good at determining the sex of a small critter from a distance. I got a piece of bread, broke it up and put it on the ground for the critter.
Now, I know it is against the law to feed the wildlife, but I couldnSA国际影视传媒檛 imagine a wildlife officer busting into my tent to charge and fine me. And yes, I know some people donSA国际影视传媒檛 like people feeding wild animals human food for various esoteric reasons. If you are hungry enough, youSA国际影视传媒檒l eat just about anything. But the mouse looked hungry and itSA国际影视传媒檚 what I had.
The mouse ate some of the bread and then, with his cheeks filled with bread, he left, probably to take it home and feed its youth. It turned out Herman came back every night to get a little food and one night a second mouse showed up, but Herman, being a little territorial, chased it away from the best pieces.
One important lesson is you may not see the birds and animals on a blustery day but they are all around you in their beds, nets, burrows and sheltered places to weather the storm.
In closing, during our Love the Mice celebration, I suggest people either read the book or watch the movie 'The Mouse That Roared,' from the 1950s. It is a satirical masterpiece written by Leonard Wibberley and in the movie, Peter Sellers was not only the star, he played three different characters, So lets hear a roar for our mighty mice.
