The Secret Life of the Harvest Mice

Photographers Jean-Louis Klein and Marie-Luce Hubert, both from the Alsace, France, spent the year snapping the elusive harvest mice in a project that ended with their release into the wild. Laying patiently in meadows and reed beds, the pair were able to capture the fascinating images. A stunning and rare insight into the secret tiny lives of adorable harvest mice is revealed in incredible pictures captured painstakingly over 12 months.

An inquisitive mouse balances on two ears of wheat to take a close look at one of the cameras

A harvest mouse uses all four legs and its tail to steady itself on two stalks of grass

Another one snares a cicada in the reed beds of Alsace, France

A harvest mouse wraps its tail around a plant stem to help it balance while it investigates

A female harvest mouse rolls her baby carefully up a plant stem towards her nest

To demonstrate how the mice often take to the water in the wet meadows they inhabit, 55-year-old Jean-Louis and 46-year-old Marie-Luce gave one of their subjects a dip in a mouse-sized aquarium before releasing it into the wild.

A cobweb creates a stunning backdrop for a male perched on canary grass

 

A harvest mouse keeps watch from the safety of its nest made from Phragmites reeds 

Inside her nest, a female regurgitates to feed her ten-day-old babies

An adventurous young mouse getting into an unusual position - hanging from the tails of three of its siblings.

 

Harvest mice are extremely agile creatures. Here is one effortlessly climbing down a wheat stalk

A mouse licking drops of water off a leaf

A harvest mouse uses the head of another to support himself as it examines some interesting object in the distance.

Two harvest mice play with each other.

Photos: BARCROFT MEDIA

Thanks Daily Mail.