Watch this ace move: Wimbledon balls turned into homes for tiny mice
Wimbledon sees about 55 000 tennis balls being used each year, but what happens when the tournament ends?
According to an article published in Sustainability Magazine, which is based in Birmingham in the United Kingdom, while many are sold to raise money for the Wimbledon Foundation, some are donated to Wildlife Trusts, a grassroots movement of 46 independent charities working to bring back and support wildlife.
The organisation transforms the balls into homes for one of the UK's smallest – and most vulnerable – animals, harvest mice.
According to Wildlife Trusts, the tiny harvest mouse lives in tussocky grassland, reedbeds, hedgerows, farmland and around woodland edges. Mainly vegetarian, they eat seeds and fruits, but will also eat invertebrates. Harvest mice build a spherical nest of tightly woven grass, high up in the tall grasses, in which the female will give birth to around six young.
The UK Mammal Society says harvest mice, Britain's smallest rodent, weighing only four to six grams, are 50mm to 70mm long and have a tail of 60mm.
With agricultural practices having dramatically reduced harvest mice's natural habitat and the harvest mouse on the UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework's priority list, a tennis ball makes an ideal home.
According to The Sun, the Wimbledon balls are modified by cutting small openings that allow the thumb-sized mice to burrow in. They are then placed in tall grass, which is where the mice are often found, or mounted on poles to help them escape predators.
The initiative has been running for 15 years and is just one part of Wimbledon's environmental efforts.
Watch: The surprising second life of Wimbledon balls. Video: Yahoo! Sports
While we're on the topic of Wimbledon, no words will do this justice…
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