Why they released 1014 Tiny Mice to a London Park

this is a harvest mouse and until meeting up with the guys from the healing Wildlife group I don't think I'd properly appreciated just how tiny sweet and awesome these little guys are come along with us for what is quite possibly one of the most wholesome feel-good rewriting stories I've had the chance to film so far for leave curious well it feels good until you consider their role in the ecosystem as a bite-sized snack but getting wild animals back into an urban space where people can be part of the process is what rewilding is all about So today we're going to be meeting up with Sean from the Ealing Wildlife group you might remember him from the beaver project and yeah today we're going to be seeing a harvest Master introduction here in London I just pulled up at Horton Farm where we're going to be seeing where they've been breeding these guys where they've been cooking these guys not actually cooking then you know they're not actually putting them in the oven just for clarification there so Horseland Farm is a beautiful little tucked away space in the bar revealing where the community is encouraged and able to get involved with nature I'm running this project you've got Sean and the mouse wives I had the pleasure of meeting Claire and Leslie they've appropriately gained the title of mouse wives as they've done much of the work to get these mice ready for the reintroductions Harvest mice are mammals they are extremely tiny okay oh there is they're tiny they're way smaller than I thought I couldn't get over just how small they are they weigh about six grams and they're about seven centimeters in length they've got prehensile tails meaning they can use them as a fifth limb and they're the only British mammals to have this skill which they can utilize in the long grass which is where you'll most likely find them in the wild but with that being said finding them in the wild would be pretty tricky here in the UK they are nationally rare and they're classified as near threatened which means they're at real risk of Extinction habitat loss and fragmentation through intensified agriculture the loss of field margins Hedges and the increased use of pesticides has really been the key driver in their declines and if they're so small why are they so important well as well as being really really tiny and sweet they are an incredibly important part of the food chain think of them as an indicator species if numbers are thriving you can bet that the habitat is Rich and it's supporting insects birds bats and their predators a whole range of biodiversity this is the breeding room be quiet and there's where they get on with each other you've got Scottish ones in here you've got horses and ones from the farm you've got Battersea wines it says where they are so they'll get it on look at him after chatting with the mouse wives I found out that it's not easy breeding these little guys all the mice from the different locations need to be sexed and paired up to ensure genetic diversity they have a three-week gestation period with Offspring being weaned by another two weeks which means there's a lot going on in a short space of time and with all of these tanks not only do Leslie and Claire and Sean have to keep on top of this but they have to ensure that all the mice are getting enough water and food and they do all of this as volunteers which is really nice to see dedicated people working to bring some life back to our Landscapes so what's happening now Sean are we going to get them loaded up now so we're gonna get uh eight boxes of mice or ten boxes of mice I think and get them loaded up in the car get them to their new home back in Royal some kind of skulls of something deceased oh those are all pellets yeah oh bullets okay you're gonna get taken by Sean down to the release site so the mice are going to be reintroduced to a place known as manam fields in Ealing it's a really nice natural park within greenford we've got a uh quite a quite quite a big volunteer group here to help us reintroduce these guys [Music] before we head off um so I'm just gonna stand on the gate taking a selfie everyone may be quietly say Harvest mice okay let's go so what also what we do guys is um we want to put out mice that are unrelated together so here we're going to mix them up we're going to put a box of Horseland and males with a box of Scottish females and hope they get along is this Prime this is absolutely Prime habitat you've got like basically they like the messy margins so you've got a bramble patch meeting grassland meeting all these umbrella for us cow parsley hogweeds the seeds they love when later in the Autumn they'll feed on the blackberries they'll feed on all the insects they've got the canal on the far side and big nettle patch it's just basically undisturbed ground that isn't very highly managed and they will absolutely Thrive here [Music] oh no where's he going oh he's going on it's a child for Life there we go there we go Charlie Wilson go from the tube because it's a bit of a nervous one that one so Papa close to the leaves should go yeah tell her make her choices foreign there was a really strong turnout from the public people of all ages just interested and eager to be part of this fun afternoon of rewilding and with the releases today the project has now released over 1 000 Harvest mice back into London which is a really great accomplishment and it also gives me a catchy number I can put in the title of the video at the heart of these projects are just good people who are often working simply because they want to do something good they want to have an impact so I really encourage you to go and show some love to the Ealing Wildlife group there'll be a link in the description to do just this oh and if you want more from leave curious you can become a member here on YouTube where I share a behind the scenes Vlog and exclusive content with all of my work with lead curious and also what I get up to over at Mossy Earth where I also make videos on their rewarding projects it's only like 2.99 a month and you gain a lot for that and it also supports the channel and enables me to keep creating these videos to do this just click join somewhere under or around this video in the meantime thanks for watching leave curious foreign

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 65,673

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Id: Ot-bme1v7mg

Length: 6min 35sec (395 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 08 2023