Two design projects have been posted online that bring the animal kingdom and the computer world a lot closer together.

The computer mouse may have been named by the Stanford Research Institute because of the way the attached lead looks like a tail, but two designers have taken things a little further. 

Environmental studies graduate Noah Weinstein and biologist Christa Canida bought a frozen mouse from a US pet shop and used its skin to cover a computer mouse.

The duo shared the instructions on the Instructibles website so that other people can do the same. 

The 'Mouse Mouse' would be the perfect accompaniment to a separate design project of turning wildlife into computer kit.

Artist Kasey McMahon bought a stuffed beaver and hollowed it out using a kitchen knife before adapting it to house computer components. 

"I am interested in the way we interact with nature. As we become increasingly reliant on technology, we become disconnected from our natural environment," said McMahon.

"Nature then is a spectacle (i.e. holy crap, that's a beaver!), an outing, a thing that is nonexistent in our daily lives."

Compubeaver uses an Intel Core2 Duo processor, 160GB laptop hard drive, 1GB Ram, a Panasonic 8x slim DVD burner and an 80mm Tornado fan.  

Weinstein defended the project to turn a real mouse into a computer mouse after receiving comments such as "You disgust me" and "Gross".

"I think things like labour exploitation, war, apathy and the millions of people that are starving to death while America dumps its excess grain at sea are gross," he said.

"We are just a couple of creative and dedicated individuals who put a computer mouse inside a frozen mouse that was destined to be eaten by a snake."