Yellow-necked mouse

The yellow-necked mouse, Apodemus flavicollis, is closely related to the wood mouse, with which it was long confused, and was only recognised as a separate species in 1894. It differs in a band of yellow fur across the neck, slightly larger ears, a slightly longer tail and a generally larger body. Adults are about 89 to 133 millimetres long with a tail about as long again and weigh 28 to 43 grams, brownish-grey above with a sharp line to white underparts. It is nocturnal and active both on the ground and in the tree canopy, can climb trees, eats nuts, buds, shoots, fruit, seedlings and sometimes small invertebrates, and sometimes overwinters in houses. It is found mostly in mountainous parts of southern Europe, extending north into parts of Scandinavia and Britain, and in Eastern Europe densities of up to a hundred animals per hectare have been recorded. It spreads tick-borne encephalitis and carries the Dobrava hantavirus. The IUCN lists it as Least Concern.