Harvest mice have prehensile tails for gripping grasses 
Catherine Early 06/05/2024 09:09 4 min
West London rewilders have released more than 150 harvest mice into the wild at a wood in Ealing as part of a wider project to increase populations of the endangered mammal.
The mouse can typically be found south of Yorkshire. However, populations have plummeted by 70% since the 1970s, mainly due to their habitat being destroyed by human activity
It is hard to spot – an adult is just 5-7cm in length and can weigh as little as a 2p piece. Its tail can be as long as its body, and it is the only British mammal to have a prehensile tail, meaning it can use it like a fifth limb, holding on to grass stems with it.
It lives in long grass in grassland, reedbeds, hedgerows, farmland and around woodland edges. It is mainly vegetarian, eating seeds and fruits, but will also eat insects. Harvest mice build a nest of tightly woven grass, high-up in the tall grasses, in which the female will give birth to around six baby mice.
By inviting our local communities to take part we’ve seen incredible engagement and a sense of pride and guardianship emerge for our green spaces.
Ealing wood
Perivale Wood in Ealing is the UK’s second oldest nature reserve, and the last place harvest mice were sighted in the borough before becoming locally extinct. The last recorded sighting at the wood was in 1979.
The wood is owned by the Selborne Society, which worked with Ealing Wildlife Group and the London Wildlife Trust to bring the mice back to the borough.
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More than 1650 harvest mice have now been released across sites in Ealing, with Perivale Wood becoming the fifth release site. This project links up release sites with new and improved habitats at Perivale Wood via dispersal routes along the canal and railside, enabling the harvest mouse population to expand its range.
The conservation groups hope that this will make the population more likely to expand and survive damage to the ecosystems it lives in caused by extreme weather such as drought.
Community volunteers
Richard Goddard, chair of the Selborne Society, said that volunteers had been behind much of the work needed at the wood to prepare for the return of the mice, such as creating a pond. In total, more than 2,000 hours of voluntary work was completed last year. The mice were bred in captivity at a local farm.
Dr Sean McCormack, vet and chair of Ealing Wildlife Group said: “It’s been really fantastic to see wilder habitat types emerge in the past few years through our collaborative work with Ealing Council, meaning species that have previously been pushed to the edge now have the opportunity to return.”
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The mouse reintroduction is part of the Rewilding Ealing initiative, which has also bought back the beaver to the borough.
“These projects are not just about rewilding habitat and reintroducing lost species, but also about rewilding people. By inviting our local communities to take part we’ve seen incredible engagement and a sense of pride and guardianship emerge for our green spaces,” McCormack said.
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