CONSERVATIONISTS are hoping an endangered species of mouse will play ball in the North-East - with some help from Wimbledon.

Some of the 36,000 tennis balls used during the tournament, which starts today, have been earmarked for the Northumberland countryside as artificial homes for harvest mice.

The All England Lawn Tennis Club is donating the balls to help a scheme by the Wildlife Trusts in Northumberland, Avon and Glamorgan which aims to encourage breeding in existing strongholds.

Harvest mice, which weigh only six grammes when adult - about the same as a 20p piece - are endangered because their habitat has come under threat from intensive farming.

The smallest British mammal, they normally weave homes which are the same size as a tennis ball from grass and reeds part-way up tall stalks

Discarded tennis balls to be used under the scheme will have a 16mm hole bored into them. The mice can make their nests in relative safety from predators, including birds of prey and weasels.

The balls are attached to poles up to 1.5 metres off the ground in areas where harvest mice normally settle, particularly reedbeds, grassland and hedgerows. There are five colonies in Northumberland.

Dr Simon Lyster, director general of the Wildlife Trusts, said: "The harvest mouse is an excellent indicator of the health of our fields and hedgerows.

"It has been under increasing pressure, and we hope that artificial nests will provide them with the help they need to survive."

l Stockton Borough Council is to reintroduce the animals to the Castle Eden Walkway, which last recorded harvest mice in the 1980s. They will be released on a former railway line next year.

Read more about Wimbledon here.