Micromys minutus
Silhouette: T. Michael Keesey · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) is a small mouse native to Europe and Asia. It is typically found in fields of cereal crops, such as wheat, rice 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 European rodent; 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.
The genus Micromys most likely evolved in Asia and is closely related to the long-tailed climbing mouse (Vandeleuria) and the pencil-tailed tree mouse (Chiropodomys). Micromys first emerged in the fossil record in the late Pliocene, with Micromys minutus being recorded from the Early Pleistocene in Germany. They underwent a reduction in range during glacial periods, and were confined to areas in Europe that were free of ice. During the mid-Pleistocene, Micromys minutus also lived in parts of Asia. This suggests that they spread towards Asia when the ice sheets... Wikipedia →
Recording0:41
Slovenia · 2025
© Mu-Ming Lin · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:23
Netherlands · 2015
© Jeroen van Erp · Observation.org, Nature data from around the World · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Harvest Mouse sighting in London on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 18th most-seen of the 20 mammals we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Eurasian Harvest Mouse in London on a given day, against under 5% in January to November, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Eurasian Harvest Mouse sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only London, in our data
London is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Eurasian Harvest Mouse sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Muridae
The closest relatives of the Eurasian Harvest Mouse that you can see in London (family Muridae, Old World Mice and Rats) are Brown Rat (about 30%) and European Wood Mouse (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Eurasian Harvest Mouse is recorded against all the mammals logged in London (9 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
