House-proud mouse may be tidying just for fun, expert says

Mice like to keep themselves clean, but does this diligence extend to their homes?

- Linda Geddes

Video footage of a mouse gathering up objects in a shed and placing them neatly inside a box, night after night, has been interpreted as evidence for "mousekeeping". But there could be other explanations for this curious behaviour, experts say.

The Builth Wells rodent, nicknamed "Welsh Tidy Mouse" by the shed's owner, Rodney Holbrook, was recorded gathering clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts and placing them in a tray on Holbrook's workbench - a behaviour that has been going on for months. It follows a similar incident in Bristol in 2019, when a mouse was videoed "stockpiling" screws, pieces of chain and other metal items inside a box of bird feed.

Assuming Welsh Tidy Mouse really is keeping its home spick and span, it would not be the only animal to engage in "cleaning" behaviour: bees and ants remove corpses from their hives and tunnels; garibaldi damselfish clear sea urchins and starfish from their nest areas and trim excessive algae; and songbirds carry their chicks' droppings, uneaten food and dead nestlings away from their nests, possibly to reduce the risk of infection and alleviate smells that could alert predators.