The world's oldest mouse? Meet Pat, who now has a place in the Guinness World Records

The tiny critter, named for actor Patrick Stewart, was officially recognized Wednesday at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park

It’s official. The world’s oldest mouse in human care is a tiny critter living at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Guinness World Records adjudicator Michael Empric came from New York to the Escondido park Wednesday to bestow the title on Pat, a Pacific pocket mouse born at the park nine years and 209 days ago. The species is endangered, and Pat is part of a breeding program that has introduced some mice back into the wild.

The recognition is a first for the Zoo and Safari Park, which has earned world-wide acclaim for many things, but has never had an animal that was the oldest on record.

It also was a first for Guinness World Records, which previously had no category for world’s oldest mouse.

“There may be old mice, but they don’t have birth certificates,” Empric said at the ceremony held at Beckman Center for Conservation Research at Safari Park. “So what we needed was documentation.”

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/communities/north-county/story/2023-02-08/the-worlds-oldest-mouse-its-at-safari-park-and-now-a-guinness-world-record