Never let it be said that you don't learn anything here at 'The View...'. Here in the idyllic countryside, the Suffolk Wildlife Trust are working on a project to encourage harvest mice.
Harvest mice are seriously cute. They weigh about 5 grammes (about the same amount as a 20 pence coin), and eat grass seed - even the National Farmers Union approve of them. It was thought that numbers were in serious decline, so a biodiversity study was undertaken to find out. This involved examining barn owl pellets to see what they were eating. The more evidence of harvest mice, the better (alright, this is a bit gross, but it does make sense). Happily, it turned out that there were quite a lot of the cute little creatures about.
However, the fact that they're cute is a decided advantage, and farmers are being encouraged to make provision for them, leaving grass margins around fields, allowing the vegetation around ponds and rivers to grow a bit taller, that sort of thing.
Anyway, watch the video, you'll learn something...
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