The muridae family.

Part two the yellow-necked mouse.

Not only does the yellow- necked mouse resemble a large,sandy coloured wood mouse, but it is very much like the wood mouse in its behaviour. Both mice are strictly nocturnal,with the big ears and eyes of creatures that need to pick up in the dark the faint sound or slight movement that warns them of approaching danger, and both climb well and often search for food among high branches. Both are found in woods, hedgerows and gardens. This seems to contradict a basic biological principle that no two animals can live in the same place and share the same food supply without one ultimately displacing the other. The yellow-necked mouse might be expected to become dominant as it is large, but it is the wood mouse that occurs over most of Britain. Yellow-necked mouse occur in the south, the welsh borders and in some parts of the midlands. Where they do occur, yellow necked mouse may increase to considerable numbers and then inexplicably disappear a year or two later. In parts of the south east, where yellow-necked mice can be quite common, they often go into peoples gardens and even their houses in autumn, perhaps seeking a dry,sheltered place for the winter. Yellow-necked mouse looks very much like a wood mouse, but it is distinguished by its distinct yellow collar, it is also bigger and heavier than the wood mouse,and its sandy brown coat has more orange on the flanks. In total the yellow-necked mouse is about four inched in length, with its tail being as long or longer again. Better climbers than the wood mouse, the yellow-necked mouse are more likely to be found in an attic, they may also be found at the top of a tree searching for new buds. The record they have been found at is ten meters. Like wood mice, yellow necked mice eat mainly seeds and fruit, such as acorns,hazel nuts and blackberries. In summer they also feed on insects and small animals such as snails and spiders. Their nest of grass and leaves is made underground within the burrow. There are five or more babies in a litter, they emerge from the nest when they are about eighteen days old. They rarely live for more that two years in the wild.

Resource partitioning

This is when animals and creatures come out at night.It makes perfect sense for them to do this, Bats,owls and badgers mostly come out in the evening to forage for their food. Firstly its cooler at night for them. Snails,slugs and earthworms will die in the heat of the day so they come out when it is cooler, The animals take advantage of this to enable them to eat at night.Through resource partitioning owls take advantage of day-time raptors who are asleep at night,Meaning the owls have all the shrews,bank and field voles,harvest mice,yellow neckedmice and woodmice to themselves.Of the 800 large moths 100 of them come out in the day.So butterflies are not avoiding competition but they are avoiding predation.Bats take advantage of the moths coming out at night who themselves may well have become nocturnal to avoid predation themselves.