Mice Relocation – Humane Wildlife Removal

Do mice survive relocation?

So you have managed to humanely catch a mouse in your home or establishment, and you want to release it to enable it to continue to live its life. Whether you are simply uncomfortable killing a mouse, or you are particularly compassionate about animals (even rodents), attempting to release a mouse without harming it is certainly commendable.

It can however be hard to know how to begin to release the mouse, where to release it, if you should release it in nature, or how far away you must take the mouse so that it does not come back. These are the factors that often aren’t considered which makes it likely that the creature will not survive.

What should I do to ensure the mouse will survive?

Firstly, you should consider where the mouse was found, if it was found in an urban area it should be released back into an urban area. If it was found near a forest or park it should be released back into a forest or a park. Although the intention is good, the most common mistake made when releasing a mouse is taking an urban mouse and putting it into the wild. Here the mouse will struggle to locate food and water and safe spaces from other creatures and it is extremely unlikely to survive.

Then you need to consider how far away you should take it. Mice do not travel far and tend to live their lives in one small area. Even if you ensure that you release an urban mouse in an urban area, if you release the mouse too far from where it lived previously it will also not be able to survive for similar reasons. The mouse will have regular spots it visits to find food and water, in urban areas, this is likely to be around bins and restaurants and local water sources. If you take the mouse too far from its area, it will not be able to find resources and is likely to starve or dehydrate before it can locate them. The best practice is to release the mouse 100 yards (or one block) from where you found it.

If you have more than once mouse to release, there is a greater chance of survival. If there is more than one mouse to be released, you should release them all together. This means that they will enter the environment as a hoard and are more likely to survive as they can protect each other and have a better chance of surviving attacks from predators.

To summarize, although very difficult, unlikely, and hard to measure, it is not impossible to ensure the survival of the mouse. If you consider the above tips the mouse is more likely to survive, and your humane efforts will not be in vain.