EALING Wildlife Group (EWG) has reintroduced Harvest Mice back to London.

Harvest Mice are Britain's and Europe's smallest rodent and in recent decades they have undergone rapid declines due to changes in land management nationwide.

The mice live mainly in grassland areas and eat seeds, fruit and invertebrates, and build their nests high up in tall grasses.

Their presence in Ealing can support the wider food chain and will be a welcome addition for Ealing's growing populations of birds of prey, such as Barn Owls, Kestrels and Little Owls.

In order to release the Harvest Mice, EWG successfully crowdfunded their project, by asking people to 'sponsor' a mouse for £10.

The money will be used to purchase hundreds of captive bred mice from one of the country's leading rewilding experts and to set up small breeding colonies of their own.

The group has also partnered with Calderglen Zoo in Scotland who are donating their captive bred mice for release on an ongoing basis.

The fundraising was very successful and the £2,500 target was hit within days of being set up.

The plan is to release the mice back into the wild in the next couple of years.

Sean McCormack, Chair of EWG, believes that communities and councils can work together to create suitable space for nature, and the Harvest Mice reintroduction project is just the latest in a long line of projects being spearheaded by EWG.

He said: "After extensive surveying of likely locations in Ealing, we believe Harvest Mice are locally extinct here due to historic habitat loss and fragmentation.

"Over the last few years however, there has been an effort to manage some of Ealing's green spaces more sympathetically for nature.

"What this has done has enabled several sites within the borough to now have habitats suited to the reintroduction of Harvest Mice."

The story has managed to grab the attention of the mainstream media as well, with BBC London News presenting a two-minute clip on the tiny rodents, on its lunchtime and evening news last Monday, August 2.

BBC London reported on how the mice were brought to Ealing from the Scottish zoo, as the temperature up north is considered too cold for them to thrive in the wild.

Dr McCormack speaking to BBC London said: "The last known records of the harvest mouse are 1979, so we think they've been gone for at least 30 or 40 years because of the way we've managed our landscapes.

"So now we're managing them a bit more sympathetically for nature and allowing them to rewild over the next few years.

"We decided it's high time to bring Harvest Mice back to Ealing."