First National Harvest Mouse Day announced

The first ever National Harvest Mouse Day will take place this year.

It was created by Mammal Society, a charity which studies and looks after native mammals in the UK.

National Harvest Mouse Day will take place on 19 October, and the charity say its aim is to celebrate and raise awareness of the fluffy creatures, and encourage people to take part in surveys to help protect them.

Each year the charity organises a big harvest mouse survey to help keep an eye on how they are doing in the UK.

This year's National Harvest Mouse Survey runs from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026.

As part of the survey, volunteers will look out for the empty nests of harvest mice in long grass and reeds to give them an idea of how many there are and how well they're doing.

Harvest mice are Britain's smallest rodent, weighing around 4-6 grams - that's about as heavy as a 20p coin.

They live in the countryside, usually near to farms and create ball-shaped nests woven from grass to sleep and have babies in.

The National Harvest Mouse Survey takes place after the mice have left their nests in the autumn-winter, so the animals will not be disturbed during the count.

The survey first launched in 2021 after a review by the Mammal Society, which looked at british mammals and their population and conservation status, showed that the conservation status of harvest mice could not be worked out, because there was not enough solid information.

The charity says that anyone can volunteer to take part in the survey, and the charity will tell them what to do.