Wildlife · Jack Russell Terrier
Ethiopian water mouse returns after almost 100 years – the Jack Russell demands a recount
Der Hündeler, Edition of Friday, 13 November 2026
What happened
The Ethiopian water mouse has reappeared. For almost 100 years the small mammal was thought to be possibly extinct.
What does this mean for your Jack Russell?
The Jack Russell Terrier was bred in southern England to bolt foxes from their earths. Mice have been a sideline ever since, though one handled thoroughly. That a rodent could go unnoticed for nearly a century strikes him as a formal complaint about his work, despite his never having set paw in Ethiopia. He will now reopen every hole in the garden, including, as a precaution, the ones containing this autumn’s tulip bulbs. The fact that the water mouse lives in the wet does not deter him: a Jack Russell is standing in the stream before he has thought about it. For dogs in Switzerland the news changes nothing. For Swiss lawns, it changes a great deal.
What you can do now: Warn the neighbours. Do not count the holes in the lawn; fill them in.