Why can house mice survive in buildings and aboard ships?

The house mouse (Mus musculus) is able to survive in buildings and aboard ships because it is a highly adaptive rodent that has evolved specific behavioral and physiological traits that allow it to thrive wherever humans are present.1

These mice are essentially omnivorous, which enables them to exploit a wide variety of food sources found in human environments. Furthermore, they are agile climbers, jumpers, and swimmers, allowing them to navigate and inhabit diverse structures. Their ability to construct nests in any protected area, combined with a rapid rate of reproduction—producing up to 14 litters per year—ensures that populations can quickly establish and sustain themselves in indoor settings. Because of these traits, they have become a cosmopolitan species, having been introduced worldwide through their long-standing association with human activity.12