A Mouse Has Died Inside A 155-Year-Old Mousetrap In A Museum Exhibit

RIP, mouse.

A freshly dead mouse has been found inside a mousetrap so old it is literally a museum exhibit.

Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading / Via blogs.reading.ac.uk

It was not baited. Obviously.

The mouse snuck past security, exterior doors, and thousands of objects in the museum, before it found the one thing that was designed to kill it 155 years ago. It then squeezed between the bars and died.

Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading / Via blogs.reading.ac.uk

According to an email from the assistant curator to staff at The Museum of Rural Life at the University of Reading, the dead mouse “was not described as being there on the database” in the listing description for the long-retired trap.

Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading / Via blogs.reading.ac.uk

The museum isn’t sure what to do with it. One option is to have it taxidermied and added as a permanent fixture to the mousetrap display. The other, a dignified burial.

If we could interview the mouse and ask him why he did it, we would probably learn the meaning of life. But we soldier on into the void, ever clueless.

Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading / Via blogs.reading.ac.uk

What did he know that we don’t?

H/T 155-year old mouse trap claims its latest victim, with thanks to Nick Booth.

The Museum of Rural Life is currently closed for redevelopment.