During my PhD, I spent a lot of time trying to track down the mysterious predator which was cracking open the galls of the reedbed flies I was studying. It turned out to be Europe’s smallest rodent, the harvest mouse (Micromys minutus), and so began my fascination with this overlooked omnivore.

In the UK, harvest mice are traditionally associated with fields of wheat, and there has been concern from the conservation community about their apparent disappearance from arable land in recent years. However, we actually know very little about the true historic and contemporary distribution of the species, and all the evidence I have seen suggests that harvest mice are nearly ubiquitous in reedbeds in the southern half of the UK.

I am keen to discover more about the disitribution and habitat preferences of harvest mice, and in recent years various students have helped me find them in even tiny scraps of reedbed all over England and Wales.

Harvest mice thrive in reedbeds, where their ability to climb narrow stems (left) gives them access to a niche which is relatively free of predators and competitors. Photo on right courtesy of Oliver Turner.