Harvest Mouse

Harvest Mouse

Taxobox
name = Harvest Mouse
status = LR/nt | status_system = IUCN2.3
fossil_range = Late Miocene - Recent


image_width = 220px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Rodentia
superfamilia = Muroidea
familia = Muridae
subfamilia = Murinae
genus = "Micromys"
genus_authority = Dehne, 1841
species = "M. minutus"
binomial = "Micromys minutus"
binomial_authority = (Pallas, 1771)
range_

range_map_width = 220px
range_map_caption = Distribution of harvest mice

The Harvest Mouse, "Micromys minutus" is a small rodent native to Europe and Asia. They are typically found in fields of cereal crops such as wheat and oats as well as long grass and hedgerows. They have reddish-brown fur with white underparts and a naked, highly prehensile tail. An adult has a head and body between five and seven centimeters with a similar length of tail and weighs five to eleven grams. This mouse eats chiefly seeds and insects but also nectar and fruit. Breeding nests are spherical constructions woven from grass and attached to stems high above the ground.

Before the Harvest Mouse had been formally described, Rev. Gilbert White, who sensed that they were an undescribed species, reported their nests in Selborne, Hampshire: [White, "The Natural History of Selborne", letter xii (4 November 1767).] "They never enter into houses;" he wrote

quote|are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves; abound in harvest; and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades or grass or wheat.

One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially platted, ["most artificially platted": "most skillfully braided".] and composed of the blades of wheat; perfectly round, and about the size of a cricket-ball. It was so compact and well-filled, that it would roll across the table without being discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were naked and blind."

Conservation efforts have taken place in England as of 2001. Tennis balls used in play at Wimbledon have been recycled to create artificial nests for harvest mice in an attempt to help the species avoid predation and come back from near-threatened status.

See also, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Notes

References

*

External links

* [http://www.yptenc.org.uk/docs/factsheets/animal_facts/harvest_mouse.html Young Peoples Trust for the Environment Fact Sheet]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/266.shtml BBC Wildfacts]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1406612.stm BBC News 'New Balls Please' For Mice Homes]


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Harvest mouse — Harvest Har vest (h[aum]r v[e^]st), n. [OE. harvest, hervest, AS. h[ae]rfest autumn; akin to LG. harfst, D. herfst, OHG. herbist, G. herbst, and prob. to L. carpere to pluck, Gr. karpo s fruit. Cf. {Carpet}.] 1. The gathering of a crop of any… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • harvest mouse — ► NOUN ▪ a small mouse with a prehensile tail, nesting among the stalks of growing cereals …   English terms dictionary

  • harvest mouse — n. 1. a very small European mouse (Micromys minutus) that builds its nest among the stalks of wild plants and growing grain 2. any of a genus (Reithrodontomys) of very small New World mice with a very long tail …   English World dictionary

  • harvest mouse — 1. an Old World field mouse, Micromys minutus, that builds a spherical nest among the stems of grains and other plants. 2. any of several New World mice of the genus Reithrodontomys having similar habits. [1805 15] * * * ▪ rodent Introduction… …   Universalium

  • harvest mouse — pelė mažylė statusas T sritis zoologija | vardynas taksono rangas rūšis atitikmenys: lot. Micromys minutus angl. harvest mouse; Old World harvest mouse vok. europäischer Zwergmaus; Hafermaus; Zwergmaus rus. мышь малютка pranc. rat des moissons;… …   Žinduolių pavadinimų žodynas

  • harvest mouse — noun 1. any of several small greyish New World mice inhabiting e.g. grain fields • Syn: ↑American harvest mouse • Hypernyms: ↑New World mouse • Member Holonyms: ↑Reithrodontomys, ↑genus Reithrodontomys 2. small …   Useful english dictionary

  • harvest mouse — noun 1》 a small North Eurasian mouse with a prehensile tail, nesting among the stalks of growing cereals. [Micromys minutus.] 2》 a nocturnal mouse found in North and Central America. [Genus Reithrodontomys: several species.] …   English new terms dictionary

  • harvest mouse — noun A species of the sub family Murinae (Old World rats and mice) …   Wiktionary

  • harvest mouse — /havəst ˈmaʊs/ (say hahvuhst mows) noun a small rodent, Micromys minutus, of the family Muridae, inhabiting cornfields and hedgerows of Europe and Asia, and 10 cm long, half of this length consisting of the prehensile tail …  

  • Chiriqui Harvest Mouse — Conservation status Least Concern (IUCN 2.3) Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

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