white-footed mouse

noun

white-foot·​ed mouse ˈ(h)wīt-ˌfu̇-təd- 

: any of various largely nocturnal mice (genus Peromyscus) of North and Central America typically having whitish feet and underparts

especially : a common woodland mouse (P. leucopus) of North America

Illustration of white-footed mouse

Examples of white-footed mouse in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Vandegrift has speculated that mice might act as an intermediate host, but tests his team did of white-footed mice living near a research colony of deer infected with SARS‐CoV‑2 came back negative. —Jon Cohen, science.org, 29 Apr. 2024

For example, white-footed mice, the main carriers of Lyme disease, have become one of the most dominant species in their habitat as other, rarer animals have disappeared—a change that might have played a role, among other factors, in driving rising rates of Lyme disease in the United States. —Christian Thorsberg, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 May 2024

The natural reservoir for these bacteria are small mammals like the white-footed mouse. —Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 6 Oct. 2023

Think owls, foxes, and coyotes, who prey on white-footed mice, a vector for lyme disease that ticks catch when feeding on the mice. —Benjamin Vogt, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 June 2023

These ticks are about the size of a poppy seed and found on small mammals like the white-footed mice living in the Northeast and upper Midwest. —Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, Popular Science, 27 Mar. 2023

Ticks the size of poppy seeds pick up the parasites that cause babesiosis by feeding on white-footed mice, according to the TickEncounter Resource Center. —Laura Crimaldi, BostonGlobe.com, 19 Mar. 2023

Those parasites are usually carried by ticks, white-footed mice, and other small mammals, according to the CDC. —Erin Prater, Fortune Well, 16 Mar. 2023

The link: small, acorn-eating rodents, particularly the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), whose populations also shot up during strong acorn years—and whose furry bodies are a great source for the blood that the ticks need in their nymph stage. —Kat Eschner, Scientific American, 7 July 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1827, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

white-footed mouse

noun

white-foot·​ed mouse ˌ(h)wīt-ˌfu̇t-əd- 

: a common woodland mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) that has whitish feet and underparts and that is a reservoir for the spirochete of the genus Borrelia (B. burgdorferi) causing Lyme disease