Recently my house has been visited by a couple of mice. After my cats were done chasing them to exhaustion, rendering them easy for slow humans to catch, we caught them and returned them to the outdoors. My pampered felines don’t need to eat mice to survive, but the owls that live in my neighborhood do rely on mice for food. Thinking about that made me wonder what other roles mice play besides being food for ecosystem predators such as owls, snakes, bobcats, racoons, coyotes, and others.
I was surprised to discover just how integral mice are to ecosystem health. It turns out that they are one of the chief engineers in a healthy ecosystem. As mice burrow into the soil to create their homes, they break up compacted soil. This soil aeration means that water can more easily reach plant roots which in turn help to stabilize the ground, especially near stream banks, and prevent soil erosion.
As mice create and then abandon burrows, they are actually building habitat for native insects. Abandoned mouse burrows make excellent nurseries where insects such as bumblebees can rear their young.
Mice also act as ecosystem engineers by planting new vegetation. They don’t do this intentionally, but when mice forage and store seeds for future consumption, many of these seeds sprout and grow. This new vegetation adds to the root systems of the ecosystem. In addition, the organic materials that mice hoard in their burrows decompose which release essential nutrients that enrich the soil.
Mice do a lot more for a healthy ecosystem than simply being food for other animals; they improve soil, plant seeds, and create insect nurseries. It turns out we were doing more than providing owl dinners by releasing those rodent visitors back outside.
– Katha Miller-Winder, President