Farmers are being asked to create more grass margins around fields to encourage harvest mice. The Suffolk Wildlife Trust (SWT) has been studying the tiny

Havest Mouse in Tenis Ball

rodent to work out how to increase its numbers.

They want to link up grassland, reed bed a riverbank habitats to allow the mice to thrive. Martha Meek, trust project manager, said: “They are not as common as they used to be and remain extremely vulnerable to habitat loss.” Farmers are being asked to create more grass margins around fields to encourage harvest mice.

The wildlife trust said it was impossible to accurately count the number of harvest mice in the UK, although the species had suffered a huge decline since the 1970s due to change of land use and habitat loss.

It is the UK’s smallest rodent, weighing about the same as a 20p coin and builds its nest about a metre off the ground in vegetation.

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