Harvest Mice – Ealing Wildlife Group

The Minute Micro Mouse

We’ve recently kicked off our ‘Rewilding Ealing’ initiative with the reintroduction of locally extinct and nationally threatened species, the diminutive Harvest Mouse. Also known by its scientific name of Micromys minutus, or the ‘minute micro mouse’, it’s the UK and Europe’s smallest rodent, and the only one with a prehensile tail designed to cling to the finest of grass stalks and vegetation as it climbs.

A few years ago we outlined the aims, preliminary survey work and preparations for the project in a live webinar, a recording is available to watch here:

Scottish Mice Journey South

We’ve partnered with Calderglen Zoo in East Kilbride near Glasgow, which has been breeding Harvest Mice and delivered the first mice we released to form the foundation of our own captive breeding colony. Heather is a great partner in this project and continues to send us mice periodically, we also get mice from Devon and the New Forest, to keep our mice genetically diverse and healthy!

Our Tiny Celebrities!

Since the initial release we’ve had quite a bit of interest and coverage including BBC London and Scotland news. Check out the release and see these amazing little rodents being set free into the wild after a potential absence of 30-40 years from our borough here: