[Jack Garcia]

I had a petstore male who used to do it all the time, then lunge at me and nip (but never bite) me. It was both cute and funny, although I'm sure in his little head he was very seriously offended that I'd "enter" his territory! I think whether or not a mouse will be seen to engage in this behavior is related directly to the mouse's level of docility and how used it is to being around people, as well as tail size.

For mice who have more "high strung" temperaments, they become more nervous around people and will rattle their tails to say "GO AWAY!" They also have smaller tails (similar to a wild mouse's tail) which makes this even possible. In my experience, these mice are also the most intelligent and resourceful: the mice who rattle their tails seem to be the same ones who weave large, intricate nests.

Larger, more docile mice, on the other hand, seem to be more "stupid" and so used to people they don't even bother to get offended at territorial intrusion, and their tails are so heavy and long I doubt they could rattle them the same way even if they wanted to. This docility and tractability is very heavily bred toward in show mice and often gives mice who can only be described as quite "dopey."

This is a very interesting phenomenon!

 

[Jack Garcia]

Hehe, I have the same theory!

A lot of people have noticed, this, though. As the mice become less and less like they are in the "wild" (in terms of appearance and behavior), they "forget" the things their ancestors (or their current wild relatives) know.

Come to think of it, I'm sure the same thing could be demonstrated with dogs and wolves. While the dog is very smart, I bet there are things that wolves figure out much more quickly than domestic dogs. This would also account for the varying degrees of intelligence among and between different breeds.