Mice

Wood Mouse or Long-tailed Field Mouse – This “wild” mouse is widespread and abundant, but mainly nocturnal. It occasionally comes into houses in winter.

Yellow-necked Field Mouse – This is similar to the Wood Mouse but has been found at just one site in our area – in Chorley Borough, Lancashire.

Harvest Mouse – this tiny mouse occurs in a very few sites across Lancashire.

House Mouse – This species travelled with Man from central Asia in the New Stone Age and has been with us ever since.

Voles

Bank Vole – This is a widespread and abundant small mammal in our area. It tends to frequent hedges and woodland.

Field Vole – This vole is also widespread and abundant but prefers long grassland.

Water Vole – This species has been in marked decline nationally. Peculiarly, in Britain it is associated with watercourses and ponds, but is much more of a “land-lubber” in continental Europe. Though the species is widespread in our area it is only locally common.

Current survey work suggests that the Lancashire Plain may support a national stronghold. It’s the subject of a Species Action Plan at UK and Lancashire levels.

Rats

Brown Rat -There’s probably one within fifty metres of where you’re sitting! The species arrived from Asia in the eighteenth century, probably on ships, and has since ousted the Black Rat and become a major pest.

Black Rat – This species had arrived in Britain from Asia by the fifth century and spread rapidly, becoming a pest. It is now extinct thanks to unsuccessful competition with the Brown Rat, though temporary re-introductions probably occur in major ports like Liverpool.

Shrews, Moles and Hedgehogs

Common Shrew & Pygmy Shrew – These tiny mammals are widely distributed and active in daylight hours but rarely seen, though their high-pitched squeaks may often be heard.

Water Shrew – This species is generally associated with watersides, though one has been reported from a coal-shed in Bolton!

Common Mole – This species is fairly widespread, though it avoids urban areas. It is best known for the molehills produced by its excavations, though it is sometimes seen above ground in early summer as young moles are driven from their mothers’ burrows and set off to establish tunnel-systems of their own.

Hedgehogs – This species is widespread in gardens and a frequent casualty on roads.

Dormice

The Common or Hazel Dormouse is probably extinct in our area. It used to occur in coppiced woodlands around Silverdale in the very north of Lancashire.