Harvest Mouse Conservation
The Harvest Mouse is very susceptible to food shortages and adverse weather conditions and as a result the populations naturally fluctuate from year to another. However Harvest Mouse numbers are believed to have declined overall due to changes in agriculture and land use over the second half of the twentieth century.
Loss and fragmentation of suitable habitat with the reduced availability of suitable nest sites and food sources are probably the main causes:
Causes of loss or decline in numbers
- Changes in cereal crops management making them less favourable for Harvest Mice for over wintering and successful breeding
- Loss of suitable grassy areas and linear features such as field margins and hedgerow banks
- Increased grazing pressure, pesticide use and drainage
- Predation and disturbance impacting on smaller, fragmented populations.
- Habitat loss / degradation through housing and other development
Good Practice in Conservation Management
- Maintain habitat favourable to Harvest Mouse populations:
- field margins and rougher grassland with long stalked grasses
- areas along dikes and water courses with Reed Canary Grass and other reeds and long stalked grasses
- Take account of Harvest Mouse when keeping winter stubble and providing sacrificial wildlife crops
- Ensure that areas that support Harvest Mice are not over-grazed, drained, subject to pesticide use or disturbance
- Create new Harvest Mouse habitat near existing populations to allow populations to expand and colonise new areas
- Provide appropriate habitat between sites with Harvest Mouse populations to link them together.
Legal Protection
Harvest Mice have no legal protection under the Countryside and Wildlife Act 1981 but have the same protection as other mammals from deliberate cruelty under the Wild Mammals Protection Act.
Harvest Mouse is a Section 41 species of principal importance for conservation and as such need to be taken into consideration by any public body in managing their estate. NERC Act (2006)
Links
Mammal Society Harvest Mouse Fact Sheet
PTES Harvest Mouse
Associated Local Priority Habitats
Reedbed and Lowland fen
Floodplain Grazing Marsh and wet grassland
Banks and verges alongside Running and Standing Water
Field Margins
Wet woodland
Arable Crops