Hawaiian House Mice Are Not Playing Magnum's A Game of Cat and Mouse

Summary: Hawaiian house mice avoid Magnum PI's A Game of Cat and Mouse Jan. 31, 2020, because they already are angling away from aggressive Javan mongooses.

illustration of house mouse (Mus musculus), a Eurasian small mammal introduced in Hawai'i shortly after the Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1778, landing at southwestern coastal Kaua'i by British explorer Captain James Cook (Nov. 7 [O.S. Oct. 27] 1728-Feb. 14, 1779), as noted by Robert T. Sugihara, U.S.D.A. National Wildlife Research Center, in "Abundance and Diets of Rats in Two Native Hawaiian Forests" (page 189; Pacific Science [1997], vol. 51, no. 2: 189-198): George Shuklin, CC BY SA 1.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Hawaiian house mice alluded to on Magnum PI action drama television series episode A Game of Cat and Mouse Jan. 31, 2020, actually avoid aggressive Javanese mongooses more than amiable Hawaiian cats.

Director Roderick Davis and writer Gene Hong bring actual and symbolic rehearsed and serious hunting techniques of pursuit, near-capture and escape into Season Two's 14th episode. The series' 34th episode overall considers cats and mice chasing one another even though current Hawaiian contexts concern Javanese mongooses (Herpestes javanicus) more than Hawaiian cats. Season One's seventh episode, The Cat Who Cried Wolf, Nov. 5, 2018, depicts Hawaiian cats more dedicated to justice, rice and sardines than Hawaiian house mice.

Abundant food and freshwater sources, maritime transportation and pleasant year-round weather encourage Hawaiian house mice establishing themselves on Hawai'i, Kaho'olawe, Kaua'i, Lāna'i, Maui, Molokai and O'ahu.

Hawaiian house mice function as Hawaiian Island-naturalized members of the Muridae (from Greek μῦς, "mouse" and -ειδής, "-like") family and Rodentia (from Latin rōdēns, "gnawing") order.

Physically and sexually mature two-plus-month-old female Hawaiian house mice go through 15 to 30 weeks gestating yearly litters and 40 to 80 total weeks parenting them. They have five to 10 three to 12-member litters during year-round breeding seasons that herald blind, hairless newborns; weaned 21-day-olds; and physically and sexually mature two-month-olds. Colonial French, Portuguese and Spanish explorers introduced what now is the Hawaiian subspecies of European house mice, identified by Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707-Jan. 10, 1778).

Environmental stress, habitat loss, human predators and predatory animals jeopardize Hawaiian house mice survivalistically eating 10 percent of body weight daily through 20 meals per day.

Hawaiian house mice keep close to covered above and below-ground communal shelters in habitat niches with accessible, reliable, year-round animal prey, plant parts and water sources.

Hawaiian house mice look for berries, fruits, grains, seeds, vegetables; caterpillars, earthworms, flightless moths; and, when they lack all else, animal fat-laden glue, paste and soap. They manifest big ears and eyes; clean coats by grooming one another and themselves; ingrooved incisors; scent glands for territory-marking; and four-toed front, five-toed back feet. Hawaiian house mice, named Mus musculus (from Latin mūs, "mouse" and mūsculus, "little mouse"), net brown-gray upper-body and brown-gray-white lower-body hair and dusky, near-hairless, scaly tails.

Hawaiian house mice observe 0.63 to 0.81-ounce (18 to 23-gram), 5.12 to 7.87-inch (13 to 20-centimeter) head-body and 2.36 to 3.94-inch (6 to 10-centimeter) tail lengths.

Hawaiian mice put cold-weather fruits, grains, seeds and vegetables and nesting materials in storage rooms within communal burrows whose above-ground, below-ground territorial ranges male-placed scents post.

Hawaiian house mice queue up, from 119.75-foot (36.5-meter) indoor, 1.99-plus-mile (3.2-plus-kilometer) outdoor ranges, in individual nests within shared burrows in extended-network colonies under hierarchically ranked males. They realize outdoor stages as indoor/outdoor species in commercial and subsistence-scale grain fields where they reduce animal and plant pest populations until fallow-season, post-harvest plowing schedules. Indoor stages send them into commercial and subsistence-scale barns and silos where they survive on thereby contaminated stored supplies; into wall spaces; and under large appliances.

Hawaiian house mice tempt Mittens of the freckled belly and the Mittens lookalike of the non-freckled belly less than a night out and a solved crime.

Juliet Higgins (Perdita Weeks) and Thomas Sullivan Magnum (Jay Hernandez) in CBS-TV's Magnum P.I. season 2 episode 14, A Game of Cat and Mouse: Magnum P.I. @MagnumPICBS, via Facebook Jan. 31, 2020

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

illustration of house mouse (Mus musculus), a Eurasian small mammal introduced in Hawai'i shortly after the Tuesday, Jan. 20, 1778, landing at southwestern coastal Kaua'i by British explorer Captain James Cook (Nov. 7 [O.S. Oct. 27] 1728-Feb. 14, 1779), as noted by Robert T. Sugihara, U.S.D.A. National Wildlife Research Center, in "Abundance and Diets of Rats in Two Native Hawaiian Forests" (page 189; Pacific Science [1997], vol. 51, no. 2: 189-198; URL https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5095264.pdf): George Shuklin, CC BY SA 1.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Мышь_2.jpg

in CBS-TV's Magnum P.I. season 2 episode 14, A Game of Cat and Mouse: Magnum P.I. @MagnumPICBS, via Facebook Jan. 31, 2020, @ https://www.facebook.com/MagnumPICBS/posts/523013281676699

For further information:

"The Cat Who Cried Wolf." Magnum PI: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Nov, 5, 2018.

"A Game of Cat and Mouse." Magnum PI: The Second Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Feb. 7, 2020.

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