A diligent mouse has been tidying up items and placing them back into a tray on the desk in a photographer’s workshop in Builth Wells every night for nearly two months.
The industrious mouse tidying up items. (Video: Guardian).
The footage shows a mouse collecting objects from the desk and neatly placing them into a box, night after night, which has been regarded as evidence of “the cleaning mouse.” However, experts offer various explanations for this curious behavior, according to the Guardian. Photographer Rodney Holbrook from Builth Wells captured the mouse, which he nicknamed “the Neat Mouse of Wales”, as it gathered clothespins, bottle caps, dried beans, and bolts, then placed them in the tray on the homeowner’s desk—a behavior that has persisted for several months.
The mouse in Wales is not the only animal exhibiting “cleaning behaviors.” Bees and ants remove dead members from their nests and tunnels. Garibaldi fish drive sea urchins and starfish away from their nesting areas and trim excessive algae. Birds are known to carry their chicks’ droppings, leftover food, and dead birds out of their nests, potentially to reduce the risk of infection and odors that attract predators. Pacific rattlesnakes use their bodies to clear vegetation from their strike paths, aiding in precise attacks.
However, whether the mouse in Wales is truly engaged in cleaning remains a topic of debate. Although mice often groom themselves and create distinct waste areas in their enclosures when given enough space, Dr. Megan Jackson from the University of Bristol, who specializes in studying foraging behavior in laboratory mice, emphasizes that one cannot assume the mouse is evaluating its environment and deciding it needs to clean.
According to Dr. Jonny Kohl, who studies the neural mechanisms behind mouse behavior at the Francis Institute in London, the mouse may instead be exhibiting an unusual form of nesting behavior. “Male and female mice build nests to have a warm place to hide. Female mice also build nests to raise their young during pregnancy. Given the cold temperatures in the video, I suspect this case may fall into the former category,” Kohl noted. Nevertheless, this remains a curious case, as some of the items the mouse collects are often not associated with nesting. They typically select materials that can provide structure and softness for warmth.
Another explanation is that the mouse may be driven by its natural curiosity. House mice and many other mouse species often enjoy exploring new objects and interacting with them. For example, the cotton mouse, a large species found in North and Central America, loves to hoard shiny objects like bottle caps, keys, and jewelry in its nest.
