Mammals in Your Garden Prosperity It Brings
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Natural England works for people, places and nature to conserve and enhance biodiversity, landscapes and wildlife in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas. We conserve and enhance the natural environment for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people, and the economic Mammals in your garden prosperity it brings. www.naturalengland.org.uk © Natural England 2007 ISBN 978-1-84754-010-2 Catalogue code NE24 Written by The Mammal Society and Mammals Trust UK Designed by RR Donnelley Front cover image: The hedgehog should be welcome in every garden. Dave and Brian Bevan www.naturalengland.org.uk Mammals in your garden Mammals and the law Of the mammals likely to visit gardens, badgers, the hazel dormouse and all species of bat have full legal protection. This means they may not be caught, Far more people are now gardening squirrels, hedgehogs, foxes and bats. disturbed or killed without a licence with wildlife in mind, and mammal However, shrews and voles are often and that their roosting and breeding visitors are often seen as a real bonus. present and several other species can places may not be interfered with. The pygmy shrew is only about 6 cm long and also make an appearance. Some The burrows of water voles are also weighs less than 4 g. Derek Middleton/Avico Ltd Almost all gardens, including those in gardens, even in urban areas, are fully protected, as are the animals the heart of any city, will receive at visited by badgers and deer; and themselves when they are inside least occasional visits from some weasels and stoats – together with the them. Contact Natural England for mammals. The closer you live to places rather less welcome rabbits, moles and more details (see Contacts, page 29). where mammals are often found – rats – may also be seen. woodland, a park, a railway line or piece of rough ground – the greater the This leaflet will help you find out more likelihood of a variety of mammal about the mammals coming to your visitors. But wherever you are, and garden. It offers some tips about whatever the size of your garden, with making your garden more appealing for a little work and patience you should mammals and suggests what you can be rewarded with sightings of at least do to deter undesirable visitors, or at some of our native mammals. least to control the damage they Bank vole. Dave and Brian Bevan sometimes cause. Most species of British mammal are nocturnal or crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn) and many visitors, especially the smaller ones, will go unseen. However, they will often leave signs Slugs are among the many creatures eaten by the that they have been present, such as common shrew. Dave and Brian Bevan the remains of their prey, marks in the ground, hairs or droppings. Is it a mouse? In 1998/9, a survey of mammals in the The small mammals that you are most garden was carried out by The Mammal likely to find in your garden fall into Society and the People’s Trust for three broad categories: shrews, voles Endangered Species. This showed that and mice. Shrews are classified as the most common garden visitors that insectivores (together with hedgehogs and moles) while voles and mice are people were aware of were mice, grey The hedgehog – one of the most common Short-tailed field vole at entrance hole to nest. visitors to our gardens. Dave and Brian Bevan rodents. Dave and Brian Bevan 2 3 mice may also move into a house, especially in the autumn. All three species eat seeds by preference and thus have a liking for cereals, often spoiling food as a result. You can catch mice in a humane trap – these are available from many pet shops – but ensure you check it regularly. Release captured animals a couple of kilometres away or they will return. However, mice ‘dumped’ in the countryside like this will probably die fairly quickly so it may be kinder The rare water vole. Paul Keene/Avico Ltd to use an old-fashioned snap trap. An alternative is an ultrasonic deterrent True mice, either brown (such as wood to keep mice out of the house mice and yellow-necked mice) or grey altogether. However, these devices (the house mouse), have pointed noses, are rather expensive and their long hairless tails and large ears and The house mouse is quick to track down any food spillages! Dave and Brian Bevan efficiency is not fully proven. eyes. The tiny animals with long pointed areas. Bank voles are far more likely to noses often left dead by cats are be seen in your garden, but short-tailed shrews. These eat invertebrates such as field voles will turn up in rural areas. worms, snails, woodlice and spiders. The reddish-furred bank voles eat Shrews taste unpleasant to many herbage and berries but will also take predators and often remain uneaten – insects. Short-tailed field voles are although owls are undeterred! generally tawny in colour and mostly eat grass. Both the common shrew and the smaller pygmy shrew like dense Water voles are occasional garden vegetation through which they make visitors in some areas but are rarely ‘runways’. Their nests are made of found far from canals or streams. Sadly, woven grass. To stay alive, both species these voles are now far less common need to keep feeding virtually all the everywhere, the decline in their time, with only brief periods of rest. numbers being mainly due to habitat loss and predation by American mink. Mouse-sized mammals with blunt noses and short tails are voles. They Not all mice found indoors are house tend to be more active in the daytime mice. In more open suburbs and rural and prefer long grass and unkempt areas, wood mice and yellow-necked The yellow-necked mouse closely resembles the wood mouse but is larger. Dave and Brian Bevan 4 5 animals are found mainly in the south, be surprisingly noisy when feeding and the south-west and the west midlands even more so when courting! The with isolated populations elsewhere, young – generally four or five in a litter especially where they have been re- – are born in a nest of grass, leaves and introduced. They may turn up in garden moss. hedges and are sometimes attracted Hedgehogs can move quite quickly, at into gardens to feed on nuts and seeds up to 40 metres a minute (just under from bird feeders. Dormice have been two miles per hour) when the need known to hibernate in pampas grass arises, making use of their surprisingly and even garden sheds! long legs. This is not fast enough, Lewis Carroll’s portrayal of the however, to allow them to escape from dormouse in Alice’s Adventures in their major predators, foxes and Wonderland was fairly apt. Dormice badgers. Foxes mainly kill young have a long hibernation period, lasting hedgehogs in their nests whereas from October to April, and, even in their badgers take adults. This may be active season, sleep extremely deeply upsetting but it is, after all, part of the during the daytime in a state known as natural cycle and there is no real torpor. They eat a variety of foods, reason to interfere with it. You can, concentrating on flowers in the spring, however, provide hedgehogs with fox- The harvest mouse was first described by the famous eighteenth century naturalist, Gilbert White. invertebrates in the early summer and and badger-proof nesting sites made Dave and Brian Bevan fruit and nuts later in the year. More rarely seen is the tiny, red-brown harvest mouse which occasionally Hedgehogs turns up in rural gardens. Its tail is its The hedgehog is our only spiny most distinctive feature as it can be mammal species, the spines being used as a fifth limb to hold on to grass modified hairs. Gardens with a lot of or small twigs. As is the case with some cover offer them ideal homes and their monkeys, this prehensile tail enables finger-sized black droppings, harvest mice to move rapidly through containing glistening beetle parts, may vegetation. Harvest mice make round often be seen scattered on the lawn. nests suspended in clumps of grass at Hedgehogs are very useful animals to about knee height. have around as they consume large quantities of snails and slugs. They will Hazel dormice also take a variety of other foods A furry tail and golden coat distinguish including insects, fruit, worms and the tiny hazel dormouse from true even birds’ eggs. mice. More like a small squirrel than a The hours immediately before midnight mouse, the dormouse has large ears Hazel dormice may take advantage of bird baths see most hedgehog activity. They can Gardeners with weapons: another danger to and prominent eyes. These attractive and feeders. Betty McKay hedgehogs. Dave and Brian Bevan 6 7 with bricks or stout timber and with a using strimmers, disturb the target they are more likely to be seen in the long entrance tunnel. For further areas with your feet beforehand to garden than other rodents. In contrast information, contact the People’s Trust ensure that any hedgehogs sheltering to the brown rat, the black rat or ship for Endangered Species. (See Contacts, in the long grass or shrubby edges rat is now a rarity, almost exclusively page 29). wake up and move out of harm’s way. confined to a few ports. This is extremely important as Hedgehog-friendly gardeners will leave carelessly-used strimmers can inflict Putting out bird food can attract rats. at least some autumn leaves in quiet hideous, often fatal, wounds on This problem can be avoided by using corners where the animals may forage, hedgehogs.