Evidence continues to emerge which points to harvest mice surviving in parts of the North-East.

The creature is extremely rare in the region, so much so that the creatures have been reintroduced in the Billingham area of Teesside.

However, Ian Bond, the Teesside naturalist running the project, has received reports from elsewhere.

Mr Bond, a member of the Northumbria Mammal Group, has received reports from Gribdale, near Great Ayton, south of Teesside, and at Pinchinthorpe, near Guisborough.

He has also discovered what is believed to be a harvest mice nest at Barmpton, on the edge of Darlington.

Mr Bond said: "One thing that strikes you about the few harvest mice records north of the Tees is that they are dotted about over much of the North-East but none are near each other."

He said that there was anecdotal evidence that North-East populations last seen in the 1960s had survived, despite earlier beliefs that they had died out.

Mr Bond said there had also been reports of the extremely rare water shrew. Darlington naturalist Don Griss had found a dead one at Low Coniscliffe, near the town, and naturalist Derek Capes had found live ones on two sites at Great Ayton and one at Nunthorpe, in Middlesbrough.