Welsh tidy mouse - 26th January 2024

Like something from a fairy tale, a mouse has been filmed tidying a shed. It belongs to Welsh resident Rodney Holbrook. He discovered the cleaning creature after he’d noticed some peanuts, which he uses as bird feed, had gone missing.

Rodney Holbrook: “I noticed the nuts that was in the box that I had in there had suddenly disappeared. And I thought well I haven’t used them to feed the birds. So I thought I’ll put some nuts back in again. Next morning, the nuts were gone again. Strange. Someone’s pinching the peanuts.”

Holbrook, whose hobby is wildlife photography, was curious to find out more. He set up a night vision camera which was activated by motion sensors when something moved.

Rodney Holbrook: “When I looked at the uh– at the videos I captured, I thought that is amazing. Even though I’d seen it before, similar to it in uh, in uh, 2019. I could not believe this is happening again. I really could not. It was amazing.”

This wasn’t Holbrook’s first experience of a mouse cleaner, however. Years earlier, he’d filmed a mouse in England which had been organising his friend’s shed. In order not to confuse the two, he calls the new mouse, ‘The Welsh Tidy Mouse’.

The Welsh tidy mouse takes its job very seriously. Every night, it tidies Holbrook’s workbench by placing items left out into the peanut box, from clothes pegs and string to pieces of paper and plastic. But what makes Holbrook’s whiskered assistant so determined?

Rodney Holbrook: “It’s picking up all the items on the deh- on the uh, on the uh top there, to hide the nuts. Hide the peanuts. I think it’s, it’s actually just hiding them from any other mice. So he, he’s kinda saying that’s mine peanuts. So you’re not– no one else is having them.”

The Welsh Tidy Mouse has made headlines in many different countries. Mr Holbrook and his wife enjoy the positivity the story brings to the world. But what about the tidy mouse? Is it receiving a salary for its hard work?

Rodney Holbrook: “It’s a bit of a joke to say this, but I pay him peanuts. Which ain’t a lot. But I pay him peanuts.”