The first Great Nut Hunt was launched during National Dormouse Week in 1993. During the course of the survey more than 11,000 survey packs were sent out to a huge range of potential nutters, including Watch groups, schools, Wildlife Trusts, Scouts and Guides and many individuals.   By April the following year 1,878 survey sheets had been returned, revealing that almost 6,500 people took part - the largest survey of the dormouse ever undertaken anywhere in Europe. Overall, more than 3 man-years of time were spent looking for nuts; a measure of the enthusiasm and enjoyment people get from this sort of survey.   During the course of the survey nearly a quarter of a million nuts were examined. Over 13,000 of these were sent in to be checked personally by the Chief Nutter, who found that a total of 1352 nuts had been opened by dormice.   Overall, the Great Nut Hunt found 334 sites with dormice in England and Wales, as shown in orange on the map. Many other sites (in black) proved to be negative, providing the first large-scale confirmation of the disappearance of the dormouse from much of its former range. For example, dormice were known from 20 sites in Yorkshire at the end of the 19th century but searches at 83 sites there during this Great Nut Hunt failed to find any evidence of their presence.