A Mouse Between a Bus and a Tough Character

GRISON or HURON
Galactis vittata

One day while driving along a back country road in San Carlos in northern Costa Rica a small mouse ran out in front of our bus. The driver hit the brakes and the bus and the mouse skidded to a halt. A grison, a badger-like mammal in the weasel family, appeared out of the grass and was in hot persuit of the mouse. The bus had scared the mouse so it turned and ran back towards the grison. Realizing it had made a mistake it again turned back towards the bus. Having made another mistake it came to a complete stop. The grison paused as it was also confused by the situation and this gave the mouse time to make a decision. It made a 90 degree turn and made a b-line for the tall grass at the side of the road followed quickly by the grison.

The drama wasn't over yet as another grison appeared from the same spot as the first and followed the first into the grass. From the bus we could see the patterns made in the grass by the mouse and the two grisons. We couldn't tell whether the mouse met its end or escaped but somehow we suspect that the mouse was a lucky mouse and lived to evade the grison another day.