We have a few groups of harvest mice at the park in our reptile room. Don’t worry, they are reptile food but a fantastic native species to watch and see up close. Being the smallest rodent native to Europe, they can be hard to find in the wild, but surveys are carried out to monitor their populations but finding their nests.

The tiny harvest mouse is from the United Kingdom and 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.

They eat a mixture of seeds, berries and insects, although moss, roots and fungi may also be taken. Harvest mice sometimes take grain from cereal heads, leaving characteristic sickle-shaped remains. Noticeable damage to cereal crops is extremely rare.

Harvest mice are busy breeding from May to October, often producing 3 litters a year. A courting male chases a female who is often very aggressive and turns round to bite him. Eventually she usually relents, and when they have mated she chases him away.

Harvest mice are found mainly through southern and central England, the milder east coast up to around Yorkshire, and some coastal areas of Wales. Although they have a conservation status of Least Concern within England, they are considered Near Threatened at national scale and they are in decline.

Harvest mice shred grasses by pulling them through their teeth and use the strips to weave a hollow nest, about the size of a tennis ball, about 50 – 100cm above the ground and secured to grass stems.