Apodemus sylvaticus
The Wood Mouse is another true mouse and resembles a small Yellow-necked Mouse. It has large eyes and ears, is greyish brown above, and greyish white below. It can be distinguished from Yellow-necked Mouse by its somewhat shorter tail. It has an elongated yellowish brown spot between its front legs; Yellow-necked Mouse has a continuous yellowish brown band.
Wood Mice are 7.5–10.5 cm long and weigh 8–28 g; the tail is 7–9.5 cm long, so a little shorter than the body.
In spite of its name, in northern Europe you usually find Wood Mice in open landscapes, cultivated fields, hedgerows, meadows, fallow fields, as well as areas with heath or dunes. They also like young plantations, but only rarely woodland, from which they are largely displaced by Yellow-necked Mice. In other parts of Europe they will inhabit woodland.
In autumn, many Wood Mice move from open landscapes to the edge of woodland, stone walls, or into uncultivated areas with small trees and tall grass. In northern Europe, unlike further south, they can frequently be found in attics and other areas in houses.
The Wood Mouse is smaller than Yellow-necked Mouse and has a shorter tail and a yellowish brown spot between the front legs. LG.
Wood Mice are seldom active during the day, unlike Common Voles and Bank Voles. They can often evade predators thanks to their speed, while voles will hide in vegetation and remain in their tunnels at the sign of danger.
The tracks of a Wood Mouse resemble those of Yellow-necked Mouse, but the hind foot is shorter, about 21–22 mm. Wood Mice move in jumps, and the tracks of the two species can be separated only by careful observations. Like a Yellow-necked Mouse, a Wood Mouse digs really deep underground tunnels; the nests are often so deep they are not destroyed when fields are ploughed. When holes are dug from the outside you will see expelled mounds of earth. The deep tunnels are used mainly in winter; in summer the mice dig tunnels closer to the surface and less intricate in design.
Wood Mice feed mostly on grain kernels and weeds, nuts and fruit, as well as green plants and numerous insects, worms, and snails, especially in areas with dunes and heath. You can find the remains of a Wood Mouse’s meal in sheltered spots under clumps of grass, branches, stones, or tree trunks, but also just in front of the mouse’s hole. The Wood Mouse handles cones and nuts in the same way as Yellow-necked Mouse; the scat is also similar.
Wood Mice readily eat grain and weed seeds. Biopix.
