WOOD MOUSE
The wood mouse or field mouse, as it is also known, is the same size as a house mouse, but it has larger ears, eyes, and feet. It is assumed that a mouse in a house is a house mouse, but it is often a wood mouse. The wood mouse is closely related to the yellow-necked mouse, but is smaller, being only 80-110mm in body length. It also sometimes has a yellow spot on its chest to help confuse us all.
The reference books I have researched say that the wood mouse is lighter coloured than the yellow-necked mouse and hops like a kangaroo over open ground. During the weeks that I studied these mice, the smaller wood mouse scurried over open ground, and was usually darker, whereas the larger, yellow-necked mouse was lighter in colour and hopped occasionally on open ground. Who knows?
This mouse is a good climber and can climb nimbly up trees. The mice I watched lived in the dry-stone walls of the terraces of an old olive grove, but as I have already mentioned, they also like the comfort of living in buildings. Wood mice eat seeds, buds, insects, cereal crops, and snails. A good sign that they are about is fir cones with the scales nibbled neatly off.
