Harvest mouse

The harvest mouse is tiny - an adult can weigh as little as a 2p piece! It prefers habitats with long grass, but you are most likely to spot its round, woven-grass nests.

Species information

Statistics

Length: 5-7cm
Tail: 6cm
Weight: 4-6g
Average lifespan: 1.5 years

Conservation status

Protected from deliberate cruelty under the Wild Mammals Protection Act. Priority Species under the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework.

When to see

January to December

About

The tiny harvest mouse lives in long tussocky grassland, reedbeds, hedgerows, farmland and around woodland edges. It is mainly vegetarian, eating seeds and fruits, but will also eat invertebrates. Harvest mice build a spherical nest of tightly woven grass, high-up in the tall grasses, in which the female will give birth to around six young.

How to identify

The harvest mouse has pale, ginger or yellow fur, and a white belly. Its tail is almost hairless and nearly as long as its body.

In our area

Records indicate these little creatures have moved to rushy or wet pastures that are only lightly grazed if at all, or cut once a year for hay. They have even been found in reed-beds over water. They have recently been surveyed on The Mosses in the north of the county , near Wem Moss. We are managing this site for harvest mice, ensuring they have plenty of long tussocky grass to make their nests.

Harvest mice make their nests during the summer to use for rearing young. Once the juveniles leave their nests, the parents also abandon the nests and move onto drier land as the autumn sets in. By September, it is only the nests that act as evidence that harvest mice even inhabit an area! Because of their size and diminutive lifestyle, these tiny rodents are very hard to spot and very little in known about their numbers in Shropshire.