Two 13-year-old friends bred and released 250 harvest mice into a Devon nature reserve to replenish declining local populations. They raised the mice in 27 tanks across family garages over two years, sourcing some individuals from a tip and providing honeysuckle and hazel for climbing. Harvest mice measure about 70 millimetres, have sandy fur and prehensile tails, serve as prey for larger animals and consume agricultural pests, and were once ubiquitous in autumn grass nests. Population declines are linked to pesticides, repeated cropping and combine harvesters. As a native species, breeding and release required no licence.
Best friends Eva Wishart and Emily Smith had become devoted to harvest mice, and were upset, a couple of years ago, to find out the species is threatened in England due to farming practices and habitat loss. The two girls took matters into their own hands and decided to replenish local harvest mice stocks themselves. In the two years since, they have bred dozens of the tiny rodents in their garages and on Wednesday they released 250 of them into a nature reserve near Wishart's home.
Harvest mice are Britain's smallest rodent, at just 70 millimetres long, with sandy fur that helps them to blend into the grasses in which they nest. The mice are an important prey species for larger animals, and a major predator of insects that can be agricultural pests. Harvest mice are the only mammals in Britain to have a prehensile tail, which means they can grasp or hold objects such as grass stalks. They were once ubiquitous in autumn as they made their nests in the grasses that sprang up after harvest.
But for the last few years, their numbers have been reducing under threat from modern farming practices as farmers now spray pesticides, crop the same field multiple times a year and using combine harvesters, all that are thought to have decimated the population. Wishart and Smith, the two young naturalists, raised the mice in 27 tanks in their homes, with some sourced from a tip by Smith's mother. Honeysuckle and hazel, plants the mice love to climb, were harvested from Wishart's garden to place in the tanks.
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