The Scrappy Little Mouse That Turns Venom Into a Painkiller

(playful music)

[Narrator] Yep, looks about right.

A mouse eating seeds, very cute,

and you're eating a highly venomous centipede.

That doesn't seem correct

unless you're a grasshopper mouse,

the scrappiest rodent on Earth.

So you probably know not to mess with centipedes

because they do stuff like this.

They use fang-like appendages to inject venom

that rapidly kills a lizard or mouse.

But the grasshopper mouse is special.

It takes stings with ease.

Same with scorpion stings.

No big deal.

Not only that, the stings actually have the opposite effect

of what the scorpion is looking for.

The venom binds to the mouse's neurons,

blocking them from sending pain signals to the brain,

so the toxin is more of a painkiller

than a pain maker.

That means there's no stopping the grasshopper mouse.

Be the prized scorpions or centipedes,

it has evolved to tackle the deadly critters

that other predators flee.

That's tougher work than eating seeds, sure,

but the grasshopper mouse has itself a nice little niche.

Oh, and it might help researchers develop new painkillers.

That's great news for everyone involved

except the scorpion, of course.