Countryside warden Ian Bond is battling to turn around the near extinction of one of Britain's tiniest mammals.

Mr Bond has set up a captive breeding programme with the aim of releasing harvest mice back into the wild.

He started by approaching Chester Zoo, which has a breeding stock of 700 mice, and ended up with two successful breeding pairs.

Sunderland University student Dave Cullen is working on a project with him to identify the best release sites and Mr Bond has recruited 20 volunteer schoolchildren to run satellite breeding stations.

Mr Bond, from Darlington, said: "We now have getting on for 50 mice and there will be releases next spring when they will have a chance of building up their numbers before winter sets in.

"What strikes everybody who sees them is how tiny they are. They weigh the same as a 2p piece and look like toy mice.

"There are a lot of predators out there which will eat them, from toads to crows. We don't know if they are extinct or not in the region, but they are certainly extremely scarce."

The captive mice live in fish tanks and are fed budgerigar seed and fish food to replace the protein they would have in their wild diet of insects.

However, Mr Bond and his volunteers plan to carry out a net sweep of meadows to give the mice an insect treat.

The mice can breed at two months old and in the wild their lifespan can be as little as four months. But in captivity they can live for two years.

Mr Bond added: "The whole aim is to build up a viable population and to introduce them into areas where we hope they can spread."