Meadow Mouse Clues at the Children’s Museum

Elena’s Meadow Life Journal

Elena visited the Meadow Life room at a children’s museum for four days. The room showed a meadow habitat where prairie deer mice live. Elena studied differences among mice of the same species. Some mice had pale brown fur and some had dark brown fur. Some males had a wide white cheek patch, while others had a narrow white cheek patch.

On Day 1, Elena placed paper mouse models on light grass and dark soil. She used 12 models of each fur shade in each place. The models stayed out for the same amount of time. She counted the models that had peck marks from birds. The graph shows her results. A peck mark was evidence that a bird noticed a model; it was not a count of a real mouse being eaten.

On Days 2 and 3, Elena watched female mice choose between two males in small observation areas. She kept the time and space the same for each choice. On Day 4, she read the museum keeper's records of whether males from each cheek-patch group were seen with a mate and whether those paired males were later seen with young. These records came from 10 males in each group.