Harvest Mice and Bank Voles

[Alex90]

Today i decided to set up a mini set with some bits and bobs i have around, granted its not a very good set but got some alright pictures. will collect some materials specifically for it at some point this week.

These are the Harvest Mice pictures, these are captive bred mice.



and Here are my Bank Voles, they are all captive bred and i am currently speaking with a few wildlife centre with the intention of swapping offspring to create a wider gene pool in my stock and theirs. you will notice one of the males is an Albino.

[aeshna5]

Interesting. I was at Slimbridge at the weekend + they now have a Back from the Brink exhibit which features Harvest Mice (I'd never seen one before + it was tiny!), Water Voles, Water Voles, European Beaver + Common Cranes.

[vole-woman]

Oh, aren't they gorgeous! I could watch small mammals all day.

[Alex90]

a good place to see our native species of rodents, is the british wildlife centre, they keep, Microtus Agrestis, Clethrionomys Glareolus, Apodemus sylvaticus, Apodemus flavicollis, Micromys minutus, Rattus Rattus, Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus and Arvicola amphibius.

Not been to slimbridge for a couple of years would like to go a again if i got the chance.

[Alex90]

Here are a few more attempts

[vole-woman]

Lovely!

[shirl]

Superb pics, aren't they just gorgeous

[Dutchess]

Great to see these little mammals

I particularly like the last one in the harvest mouse selection (pic no.4), peeking out there

D.

[Non native]

You can get photos that good in the wild as well, these are all wild animals.



Mark

[Alex90]

Out of curiosity, how many people have seen wild harvest mice? having said that .. its likely only people who have seen them will reply.

Without trying to offend you Mark, i personally don't think those images are of as good a quality as some of the ones posted above. baring in mind it literally took me 5 minutes to take those shots, i am by no means a top skilled photographer but with a bit more effort i think i could easily get better quality pictures than my initial ones with the species i keep here.

I'm sure as people will know seeing them in the wild is much more of a thrill and it gives you a realistic interpretation of the animal in action, however very few people are as fortunate as yourself and see harvest mice in the wild, and this is quite understandable taking into account their small size and low populations.

There are better pictures than mine out there of wild animals, in fact they are in a completely different league to my photographs lol

I recently collected some wood mice from a wildlife park so provided i can get them into the set without losing them i will try to get some pictures of those.

I'm expecting litters from some of my harvest mice and have been speaking to a wildlife conservation group who should be taking some of the offspring for a captive breeding program.

All the best

Alex