The tiny hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), weighing about 20 grams and measuring less than three inches, has all but vanished from its former range. Over the last century, the dormouse has disappeared from seven countries and remains in sparse populations throughout southern England and Wales.
The greatest threats facing the dormouse include habitat fragmentation, habitat loss, and climate change.
Conservation Efforts
During the past several years, scientists have initiated a number of conservation efforts to combat these threats. In 1999, the Wildlife Trusts initiated a program to encourage woodland management practices that protect hedgrows, link habitats, and provide additional nesting habitat.
In another program intiated during the summer of 2000, scientists installed plastic tubes in hedgerows throughout southern England and Wales. The tubes provided dormice with much-needed nesting sites and gave researchers an opportunity to discovery which hedgrow habitats are most vital to this small mammal's survival.
Now, The Great Nut Hunt--a widespread population survey--is underway. This survey is open to public participation and is intended to estimate the sizes and locations of remaining populations of the dormouse.
The Great Nut Hunt
Several British conservation organizations have banded together to organize a widespread population survey called The Great Nut Hunt. But counting dormice can be a difficult task. Dormice are nocturnal, rarely come down from the trees they inhabit, and hibernate for up to eight months of the year. Consequently, conservationists have devised a clever alternative by which to assess dormice numbers. Instead of searching for the reclusive mammal, participants in the survey count the open hazelnut shells the dormice leave behind. Dormice make a distinct round hole in the hazelnuts they eat.
