Girls breed and release harvest mice into wild

CHRIS Packham is telling people to “get on and do it” after being bowled over by the actions of two Devon schoolgirls.

- LEWIS CLARKE

The best friends from Tiverton High School have pulled off a remarkable wildlife mission, breeding and releasing 250 harvest mice in an effort to save the species from vanishing from English fields.

Eva Wishart and Emily Smith, both 13, have spent two years raising the tiny rodents in tanks at home after discovering the animals were in steep decline. At the end of August, the pair released the mice into a newly created nature reserve near Eva's home in Tiverton.

Britain’s smallest rodent, harvest mice grow to 70mm long and were once common across farmland. But their numbers have plummeted, largely because of pesticides and modern harvesting methods that strip fields of cover and food.