Beneath Your Feet

Churchyards are havens for rodents. Harriet Carty, from Caring for God’s Acre, has some tips on how to spot them.

Small rodents are short-lived and highly reproductive; wood mice for example tend to live for about a year, during which time they may have up to six litters of between four and eight young. In a churchyard, you may have several species, the most likely being wood mice, field vole and common shrew. Wood mice have large ears and eyes, useful for their largely nocturnal life whilst field voles have blunter noses and smaller ears and eyes.

<Wood Mouse >Field Vole

Shrews are distinctive with a long, pointed nose and tiny eyes. All these animals need to feed frequently and are always on the move, with shrews eating 80- 90% of their body weight each day. They feed on insects and other invertebrates but will also tackle quite large earthworms, far bigger than they are! Mice and voles seek out seeds, berries and fruits, some of which they may stash for later. Whilst mice can be agile climbers, voles tend to stick to the ground, following the trails they make through grassland that you can see after a cut.

Unfortunately for them, voles and mice are important prey for a range of other species. Tawny owls, also often found in churchyards, hunt for small rodents as do kestrels, weasels, foxes and, of course, cats. Look for owl pellets beneath a nest or roost; these are regurgitated bundles of inedible parts of their food and often contain bones which can be teased out of the pellet and identified, telling you what they have been eating. Shrews, by contrast, are a less staple food item; you may find a bitten and dead shrew lying on a path suggesting that it has been hunted but was not very tasty.

Churchyards are havens for rodents, containing a mosaic of grassland, shrubs, woodland and lots of places to make burrows or use existing cracks, nooks and crannies. Free of herbicides and pesticides, they are full of food whilst areas of long meadow and tussocky coarse grass provide perfect cover. See if you can spot their burrows and runways and imagine their busy lives in the fast lane.