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 Dormice
are hard to find because they are small and nocturnal, so very
few people are lucky enough to see them in the wild. The best
way of finding out if dormice are using a wood or hedgerow is
to look for hazel nut shells that they have opened to get at
the nut inside.
Dormice open these nuts while they are still green and on the
tree, but the shells turn brown once they are discarded and
fall to the ground.Other animals like hazel nuts too, but even
so it's often possible to tell which animal has opened the nut.
Birds and squirrels usually split the shells completely in half
or smash them to pieces, but small rodents (mice, voles and
dormice) gnaw a neat round hole and leave characteristic toothmarks
around the edge. This is the basis of the Great Nut Hunt. |
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| We hope that the 2nd Great Nut Hunt will: |
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Find more sites with dormice. This
will help us improve the management of woods with dormice,
prevent the loss of more woods and persuade land managers
to plant trees and hedges to connect together woodland
fragments and help dormice spread. We can also use this
information in scientific studies to predict where else
the dormouse should occur. |
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Revisit sites which had dormice at the
time of the last Great Nut Hunt to see if they are still
there. This is an important way of monitoring how
well dormouse populations are doing. We may carry out
some later studies to see just how good nut-hunters are
at finding dormice. If you took part in the first Great
Nut Hunt, we would be particularly grateful if you would
visit the same sites as before, even if you didn't find
any nuts then - but feel free to visit some new sites
as well! |
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Find potential reintroduction sites.
These would be large woods (more than 20 hectares) with
a good range of trees and shrubs, including hazel, and
sympathetic woodland management. Provided we can find
suitable woods, we will continue our plan to reintroduce
the dormouse to many of the counties from which it has
been lost or is very rare. |
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Show how important the dormouse is as
an indicator of the health of our woodlands and hedgerows.
This will emphasise the importance of ancient woodlands
and hedgerow management. |
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