Help In The Rewilding Of Ealing


Plans underway to reintroduce threatened harvest mice to the borough


Harvest Mouse

They're tiny, very cute and have been in decline as a species for many years but they're going to be reintroduced to Ealing.

The Ealing Wildlife Group (EWG), a local conservation organisation with thousands of members, has been successfully crowdfunding to buy and breed Britain and Europe's smallest rodent - the Harvest mouse.

Since 1996 in London there have only been 6 boroughs that have recorded having them and due to agriculture, land management and climate changes, fears have been growing that they could even become extinct. It's not known if there are any in Ealing currently.

Harvest mice are important ecologically as part of the natural food chain and support a range of other species including rare birds of prey like Barn Owls.

EWG headed by Dr Sean McCormack, has now raised over £2,500 and the group plan to buy the mice as well as set up breeding colonies with the intention of continuing to release them into the wild areas of Ealing over the next few years.

An additional £500 will be spent on Longworth live mammal traps to help monitor small mammal populations and ensure the habitat management is successful to allow the Harvest mice and other small creatures like voles and shrews thrive.

For £10 you can '' sponsor'' a mouse and EWG plan to allow donors to get involved in the whole rewilding project, with the release and ongoing monitoring.

Dr McCormack is delighted to have now reached the initial target, he said: '' We did it! Can't thank everyone enough for the kind donations! Harvest Mice are coming back to Ealing. Happy to continue taking donations which will equip us with more monitoring equipment and housing for setting up multiple community led breeding colonies. That way we can have ongoing release programmes after the initial bulk release in our chosen locations.''

Find out more and donate here.


Annemarie Flanagan

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11th May 2021