Numbers of the hazel dormouse, in any other case referred to as the frequent dormouse, are dwindling.
For the reason that flip of the century, numbers of hazel dormice have decreased by greater than a 3rd as much as 2016.
Consultants imagine the tiny mammal is below menace because of a lack of habitat, modifications to how woodland and countryside are managed, and local weather change.
Two cute hazel dormice in hibernation. After gathering up their fats reserves in autumn, hazel dormice will start hibernation in winter. Because the climate turns cooler they may transfer down from the timber to floor degree, making a tightly woven nest across the dimension of a tennis ball. They are going to curl up on this ball with their tail wrapped round their face and physique to maintain heat
Hazel dormice had been as soon as widespread in England and Wales, however have disappeared from 17 counties since Victorian instances.
Now they’re solely generally discovered within the South of England and areas of the English-Welsh border.
There are considered simply 45,000 hazel dormice left within the nation, down from about 60,000 16 years in the past.
Numbers have fallen by 38 per cent since 2000, in response to the State Of Britain’s Dormice report from the Individuals’s Belief for Endangered Species (PTES).
The present fee of decline is equal to a fall of 55 per cent over 25 years, the report stated.
The hazel dormouse lives at low densities and so wouldn’t be the principle prey merchandise of the backyard dormouse.
‘Launched gray squirrels are a a lot better menace and are recognized to eat each younger dormice and lethargic adults,’ Hazel Ryans, senior conservation officer at Wildwood Belief advised MailOnline.
‘Even our native yellow necked mice have been recognized to kill and eat the brains of hazel dormice.
‘[But] in some areas of Europe, eg Poland, the hazel dormouse and backyard dormice are each native and coexist fairly fortunately collectively.’
Hazel dormice can sometimes be noticed scampering throughout the countryside in quest of meals.
Agile climbers and primarily nocturnal, they’re very hardly ever seen.
They dwell in woodland, hedgerows and dense shrub and may spend their whole lives up within the branches with out ever touching the bottom.
The species eats buds, hazelnuts, berries and bugs.
It builds summer time nests of stripped honeysuckle bark by which the feminine will give beginning to as much as seven younger.
They hibernate in the course of the winter months, in a dense nest inbuilt a tree cavity or comparable, sheltered place, and curl up right into a cute ball.
Dormice thrive in in shrubby habitat and brambles, and use hedgerows to maneuver concerning the countryside.
One of many largest threats to the tiny animals is a scarcity of administration of woods, which is leaving timber unruly and remoted.
They’ve additionally been hit by extra intensive agriculture, which has led to the lack of hedgerows and ‘flail chopping’ which reduces appropriate habitat.
Ian White, dormouse officer at PTES stated: ‘Woodlands within the panorama have gotten more and more remoted. Dormice want the hedgerows to get round.
‘The issue inside our fragmented panorama is the place dormice have turn into domestically extinct inside a woodland, with no hedgerow community it’s tough for them to get again there.’
Mr White added that local weather change was additionally having an impression on the mammals, which hibernate in winter.
Hazel dormice, their breeding websites and resting locations are protected by UK regulation.
The UK authorities says: ‘You could possibly get a licence from Pure England when you can’t keep away from disturbing them or damaging their habitats.’
