Wood Mouse? Northern Germany (1 Viewer)

Found this little fellow today and wondered if I might finally get a definite ID on a Wood Mouse. Seen from below, it didn't have any discernible collar, but then again it seems to be a youngster, so I'm not sure if that changes things.

The location was on a narrow road in between hedgerows interspersed with some trees. There were adjacent fields and meadows on both sides, and patches of forest nearby. I saw some Bank Voles and Striped Field Mice nearby, both of which seem to be typical of this type of habitat in our region.

Looks like a fairly young Wood Mouse to me. Still quite greyish over its back so perhaps not fully moulted into adult coat yet, though the head and shoulders look right. If plain white underneath you can rule out Yellow-necked.

John

Difficult to separate YNM and wood mouse at that age

Mark

Thank you both.

MarkHows said:

Difficult to separate YNM and wood mouse at that age

Mark

Click to expand...

Do young YNM not have the typical collar?

No the collar is a much lighter grey in young YNM and sometimes depending on the age is hard to see.
It gets easier to be certain of the ID as they age and only becomes the large yellow band in adults, but of course every individual is different and sometimes they are easy to separate from wood mouse even in juvenille's.

Mark