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| Photo
©Rob
Strachan WildCRU
|
Happy New Year Everyone!!
The
dormouse is a small, nocturnal mammal weighing in at 30g. For a large
part of the year (6 months or more), they hibernate in nests on or
under the ground. Dormice spend most of their active time high off
the ground in tree canopies and not just in hazel woods, they have
been found in pine-dominated commercial forests and in people’s
greenhouses and allotments!
Dormouse
numbers are estimated to have halved in the last 100 years, with the
majority of remaining populations occurring in southern England. The
main reasons for this decline appear to be linked to the loss and
fragmentation of ancient woodlands, reduction in woodland management
practices and, more recently, climate change. Berkshire is just on
the edge of this range with what appears to be a correlated lowering
of numbers.
My
name is Amanda Lloyd, I am a mammal ecologist and will be leading and
organising the dormouse surveys in the coming months. Currently we
have 4 sites with dormouse boxes in place, one site was checked in
November for dormice and 3 nests were found in the boxes, which is
great news and I am looking forward to finding the actual animal
(maybe more than one!) in question in spring.
This
year the dormouse surveys (as part of the National DormouseMonitoring Programme) will truly commence but first we need to ascertain the state the
boxes are in and repair any old un-useable ones. Thanks to
membership fees we have been able to purchase 50 new shiny boxes that
will be used to replace any old and worn-out boxes.
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| Some of our new boxes |
| Photo: Amanda Lloyd |
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| Photo
©Rob
Strachan WildCRU
|
