The mouse map
Ecologist Steve Kirk has a nose for harvest mice – or, more precisely, for the places they live. “You can be driving along with him,” says Suzanne Kynaston of the Wildwood Trust, “and he’ll suddenly shout ‘Stop the car!’ and jump out, and within minutes he’s found a nest in the verge.” It’s a remarkable skill: harvest mouse nests are notoriously difficult to find. Woven from living strips of leaf blade, they are beautifully camouflaged. But Steve insists there’s no trick to it, just a keen eye and insight honed by years of experience.
As grass-stalk zone specialists, they spend their lives feeding, sleeping and breeding without ever descending to the ground.
The popular image of the harvest mouse is of a tiny creature clinging to a stem of golden wheat, but the species’ natural habitat is long, grassy vegetation and reeds, such as might be found in rough pasture, scruffy margins, wetlands and ditches. As grass-stalk zone specialists, they spend their lives clambering from stem to stem – feeding, sleeping and breeding
