Trivia question for Oct-14-2011

Olivia likes all creatures big and small and this one is sure small.  These are one of the world’s smallest rodents, it weighs about the same as a penny.

These guys are typically found in fields of cereal crops such as wheat and oats, in reed beds and in other tall ground vegetation such as long grass and hedgerows. It has reddish-brown fur with white underparts and a naked, highly prehensile tail which it uses for climbing. It is the smallest rodent in its range: an adult may weigh as little as 4 grams (0.14 oz). It eats chiefly seeds and insects but also nectar and fruit. Breeding nests are spherical constructions carefully woven from grass and attached to stems well above the ground.

So here are Olivia’s questions:  Tell us what this small mouse is and where they can be found?  Also, these guys are fast breeders and can often be found in large quantities, can you tell us how many of these mice have been reported in a single haystack?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Congratulations to Samuel Knightbridge from Dorchester England for being the first to get our trivia correct.  The cute little mouse we featured is the Harvest Mouse.  The Harvest Mouse, (a.k.a. Eurasian Harvest Mouse) is a small rodent native to Europe and Asia.

British farmlands in the 1950’s reported populations of 100 or more harvest mice in each stack of hay.  Russian farmers have reported up to 5,000 in a single haystack.  Here is more on the productive mice: Harvest Mouse

Thanks for playing along 😉