Our Story

Wild Pets began with co-founders Eva and Emily. At just 10 years old, Eva came up with the brilliant initiative which reimagines childhood pet ownership by giving young people the chance to breed struggling British wildlife for release into the wild.

As young teenagers, Eva and school friend Emily started breeding harvest mice at their homes in Devon with support and guidance from legendary ecologist, Derek Gow. What began with a small number of mice in tanks in bedrooms and garages developed into a three-year harvest mouse conservation project.

After releasing over 250 harvest mice into a conservation site near Tiverton in Devon, Eva and Emily’s story captured imaginations across the country. The project appeared on BBC Springwatch, Newsround, BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and ITV News, and was described by Chris Packham as “a truly sensational idea.”

But perhaps, the most exciting response came from other families asking one simple question-

“Can we do this too?”

And that question became Wild Pets.

We believe young people shouldn’t just learn about wildlife conservation but that they should have proactive opportunities to take part in it. This year, Wild Pets is recruiting its first cohort of 20 young people aged between 8-13 based in Devon, to become Wild Pets Kids. With the support of the team, their families, leading ecologist Derek Gow and his team, they will take part in specialist training to ensure exemplary animal welfare standards are met and to receive a mouse care kit as well as a breeding pair of harvest mice. Throughout the Spring and Summer of 2027, our first cohort of Wild Pets Kids will care for their mice at home and hopefully watch the next generation arrive. At the end of the Summer, the team and the Wild Pets kids will come together to release the mice that they helped raise, back into the wild.

These incredible little animals are the UK’s smallest rodent, but changes to their environment have made life increasingly difficult for them. The UK is one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, with over 16% of species facing extinction due to habitat loss, climate change and intensive farming. Native small mammals like harvest mice are vital ecosystem keystone species, yet their populations are in steep decline.

Our long term ambition is to give many more young people the opportunity to participate and shape hands-on conservation. Wild Pets addresses the crises of biodiversity loss and ecological disconnection by combining targeted species reintroduction with proactive youth education. We want to directly combat local species decline whilst training the next generation of conservationists to understand, champion and actively restore British Wildlife before they are lost entirely.