I’m on deadline at my student newspaper and I need to know, definitively, if this is a rat or a mouse.
That is 100% mouse (I used to do animal research with rats).
Yep, mouse.
I’m curious as to what the urgency is about. I hope it isn’t a story about what’s really in the cafeteria food?
I agree with the mouse diagnosis.
Yeah, that’s a mouse.
I maxim’ed six of them when I was a freshman. The ears are telling in your photo, since I can’t tell based on size; rats are much bigger than mice.
I’d go with mouse too.
There are a lot of mice infesting a dorm floor. Students are referring to them as rats, since they’ve seen them “as large as your hand” without the tail; administrators and the pest control company says they’re mice. No worries about food, or so they say; the mice are only on the fourth story. How they got up there without being seen on floors 1-3 I don’t know.
Dare I ask what this means?
Yuss. Maus.
Rats are typically a lot bigger than a person’s hand if you count the thick tail. The are also easy to differentiate from mice.
Your mouse should be about the size of a hamster or gerbil. Rats in the U.S. are usually about the same size as kittens.
Here are some photos are rats:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=photo%20norway%20rat&sa=N&tab=wi
Specifically a House Mouse Mus musculus.
Rats have heavier faces and proportionately smaller ears.
Norway Rat Rattus norvegicus
Black Rat Rattus rattus
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- Maybe they came down the sewer pipe vent? Is it a four-floor building?
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- Maybe they came down the sewer pipe vent? Is it a four-floor building?
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Perhaps someone was conducting an experiment, or simply wanted to keep a pet. A pregnant mouse could populate a floor all by herself.
Someone’s pet would be my guess. So are you implying that the school/pest control won’t do anything about it because they are mice, or just contesting what they are. If they won’t do anything I would contact some of the higherups either within the school or go to the city/county/state health board or housing authority. And what do they mean no worries about food? The mice will eat your food and poop all over the place…including in your food.
The “big as your hand” thing would give me pause. Assuming the students are right about that (note to self: never assume such a thing), those are unlikely to be Mus musculus, which are quite tiny – maybe as big as your thumb, not counting the tail.
I can’t actually open the link in the OP, though I’ll take as conclusive what other posters have said about it. But here’s a possibility that hasn’t been considered – that the dorm has *both * mice and rats. Rats aren’t always that big. I’ve seen smallish ones that are indeed about as big as your hand, but not nearly as big as a kitten.
I think what are commonly called “house mice” are quite small - MUCH smaller than any rat - but field mice are rather larger. Much bigger than a thumb, although I wouldn’t say “as big as your hand” either. I would guess that the students are exaggerating, either deliberately or just because that’s what happens when people see a creepy creature crawling around their bed.
The mouse in the OP’s link looks like a field mouse to me - all the “house mice” I’ve ever seen are gray rather than brownish.
You tell the administration that if there are mice on the main floor, then they’re throughout the entire building. I started out with one in my basement. One which multiplied very quickly. They then proceeded to gnaw through the 1x4" baseboards on my top floor.
LOL. We used to joke that we had a mouse. Never mice, just one, very quick, mouse.
WAG It must be a rat,
Cause it don"t look like MICKEY! 
I live in a warehouse, def. a mousey. I find them in my dishwasher, my toilet, and running around the place after it rains. soooo cute.
rats are not so cute, mice are cute!
Looks like a small Pack Rat to me.
Big ears, long nose, heavy tail…
We get them about every other year. The one in your picture looks kinda small. They get kinda big. Say soda can - small shoe size.
We live trap them when they get in the house and let them go.