and righting at 10-12 days. The righting response in harvest mice develops earlier, but takes longer to master than the other skills the pups learn. They cannot climb horizontally by the time they are weaned, suggesting that horizontal climbing is not as essential as vertical climbing. Predators Their predators include domesticated cats, barn owls, tawny owls, long-eared owls, little owls, and kestrels. As pets These rodents are sometimes kept as pets due to their small size, they are very easy to care for, they require low maintenance and to be kept in groups. Reproduction In most rodent species, females prefer familiar males to unfamiliar ones. The adaptive preference of mating with familiar males is not uncommon as familiarity is a proxy for quality that is seen in many solitary animals. Harvest mice are thought to be solitary, and the females prefer for familiar males over unfamiliar. There is no size dimorphism between the sexes so the females are considered dominant over the males. Females do not show interest in the male's odor. When females are in oestrus they spend more time with familiar males, and prefer the one that is heavier. While in dioestrus, the female spends more time with unfamiliar males. In most years in Britain, harvest mice build their first breeding nests in June or July; occasional nests are built earlier in April or early May. They prefer building their breeding nests above ground. In Russia, harvest mouse breeding occurs in November and December in cereal ricks, buckwheat, and other cereal heads. Conservation Due to their habitat, in Japan harvest mice are threatened by a number of anthropogenic effects such as farming, pesticide use, crop rotation, habitat destruction, fragmentation, and wetland draining. Grasslands in that country are rapidly decreasing in area, and are also becoming increasingly fragmented. The first survey of the harvest mouse in Britain was conducted by the Mammal Society in the 1970s, and later followed up by the National Harvest Mouse survey in the late 1990s. These surveys indicated that harvest mouse nests were on a decline with 85% of the suitable habitat no longer available for the mice. As of 2019 the harvest mouse is protected under the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework: Implementation Plan. References External links Young Peoples Trust for the Environment Fact Sheet BBC Wildfacts BBC News 'New Balls Please' For Mice Homes