The Dormouse Monitor vol 1 2012 - People's Trust for Endangered ...

issue 1 2012thedormousemonitorthe newsletter of the national dormouse monitoring programmepeople’s trust for endangered species |INSIDE2011 NDMP results - how did our dormice fare?Scotney land bridge - dormice are breedingA closer look at dormice in torpor

issue 1 2012WelcomeContentsMeldon Woods (AKA Bluebell Woods) 3Why didn’t the dormice cross the gaps? 4Dormice found on our first wildlife bridge 6Taking a closer look at dormice in torpor 7This year has already beena busy one for dormouseconservation. Since we hada record 305 sites monitoredin 2011, the data analysistook longer than normal.Also, this year, for the firsttime, we had the dataanalysed in such a way thatwe can look at the May, June,September and Octoberrecords as individual trends.See page 11 for moreinformation.We are currently preparingfor the 2012 reintroductionat another Warwickshire site.As we go to print, 40 animalsare being health screenedat Paignton and LondonZoos. In just under a monthat least 15 pairs of animalswill be taken to their newhome, and for the first timeyou will be able to follow thelive action on facebook.com/ptes and twitter.com/ptes.Thank you to all of thisedition’s contributors.We have updates fromdormouse groups all overthe country, there is so muchgoing on. We also haveinteresting articles aboutdormice crossing variousgaps, and dormice using ourfirst real wildlife bridge inKent.We do hope you enjoyreading this edition andif you would like to sendus an article we would bedelighted to feature it.NDMP 2011 results 8Essex and Suffolk dormouse project 12Midger Wood monitoring site 12Berkshire Mammal Group dormouse work 13Herefordshire dormice in unlikely places 14Dormouse box trials 15Blackford Wood National Trust site 16Daisy and the dormouse day 17How dormice use their landscape 18Urban dormice 19Buytl pond liner nest box covers 20Nocturnal tree mammals, Romania 20People's Trust for Endangered Species15 Cloisters House8 Battersea Park RoadLondonSW8 4BGwww.ptes.orgTel: 020 7498 4533enquiries@ptes.orgRegistered charity number 274206The National Dormouse Monitoring Programme is funded by PTES and Natural England.The Dormouse Monitor is compiled by Nida Al Fulaij & Susan Sharafi.Cover image kindly provided by Ian White. Printed by 4 Print on environmentally friendly paper.The opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of the People’s Trust forEndangered Species.Best regardsNida Al Fulaij & SusanSharafi2 the dormouse monitor2 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012Why didn’t the dormice cross the gaps?Paul ChaninLast year’s article ondormice and hedgerow gaps(Dormouse Monitor, Spring2011) was a timely reminderof the pioneering work doneby Paul Bright, with theencouragement and supportof Pat Morris, in the 1990s.Before these observationswere carried out in southernEngland, very little wasknown about the ecology ofthese fascinating animals.Between them, they laidthe foundation for muchof the work that has beencarried out subsequentlyand also for the NDMP itself.Nevertheless, as time hasgone on, we have learnednew and perhaps surprisingthings about dormice.One thing we havediscovered is that dormicewill cross roads. Many willhave heard of the work thatLeo Gubert and I carried outon the central reservationof the A30 in Cornwall. Ourwork will be published thisyear but, in summary, wehave evidence that about10% of the dormice wecaught crossed at least onecarriageway and one didso twice in a month! Sohow does this fit into ourconception of the dormouseDormouse #39 crossed this road twicein a month. One nest box is in the ashtree behind the 400yds sign, the otherto the left of the signs on the other sideof the road. The wood on the centralreservation covers about 0.2ha.4 the dormouse monitoras an animal which lives intrees, hardly ever comesto the ground and ‘avoidscorridor gaps’?I first became aware of thefact that dormice will crosssmall gaps in their habitatwhen I put some tubes ina short length of scrub in awood in north Devon. Thetrack split into two leaving afew tens of square metres ofdormouse habitat, isolatedby a gap of about 3m. Itwas much too small for adormouse to live in full timebut one turned up and madea nest in a tube. It happenedwhen a broom (the shrub!)was in bloom but I don’tknow whether or not thatwas what attracted thedormouse. It can’t have beenthe tube because there wereothers nearby it could haveused without crossing theground.A year or two later, I hada phone call from MattPickard (a fellow consultant)who was foolish enough toput up some tubes on thatparticular central reservationof the A30, despite advicenot to, and discovered adormouse. Not long afterthat Simon Colenutt (anotherfellow consultant) told meof a site where a dormouseused a tube which was in avery small, isolated clump oftrees, in a garden.With all this evidence Ihad begun to carry outdormouse surveys in placeswhere I would not havethought of looking earlier.One example is of a smallarea of fairly suitable habitat(about 2ha) which has bigmulti-lane highways to thesouth and the west of it andextensive arable fields tothe north and the east. Asis usual with arable fields inDevon there are substantial‘hedge banks’ betweenthem but they are heavilymanaged with a minimumof woody vegetation onthem. The nearest large areaof woodland is about 5kmaway.In spring 2008, StephenCarroll wrote an articlefor the Dormouse Monitordescribing how the DevonBiodiversity Records Centrehad been receiving recordsof dormice using bird feedersin gardens. When I askedStephen whether he hadrecorded the distances thedormice must travelled onthe ground to get to themhe sent me a summary ofover 40 observations. Inmost cases the distances tothe nearest cover were small(less than 3m) and only twoexceeded 10m (32m and39m). However distancesfrom the nearest suitablehabitat (wood or hedge)were greater and six dormicehad crossed between 20 and80m to get to the feeders.How did they know that foodwas available? Could theysmell the peanuts or werethey just wandering aroundlooking to see what theycould find?Bjorn Schulz and hiscolleagues in Germany foundthat a high proportion of‘traffic islands’ they searchedhad dormouse nests onthem. The islands wereformed at road junctionswhere a looping slip-roadconnected two roads andisolated a small area of landwhich was then planted upwith trees and shrubs.Another interesting studywas carried out by SvenBüchner, also in Germany,who looked at dormice insmall woodlands. He founddormice in ten woods thataveraged 2.9ha in size (thelargest was 4.25ha) whichwere separated from oneanother by arable fields withno hedges. Several markeddormice moved betweenthem and had to crossthe ground for distancesbetween 250m and 500m todo so.So, what does this mean?How can we reconcile theseobservations with thoseearlier studies?It is important to emphasizefirst that Paul Bright didn’tsay that dormice never crossgaps. He said that dormiceare ‘averse to gaps’ anddormice did have to crossthe ground in some of hisexperiments - to get to thenearest hedge from theirnest boxes. He also observed

issue 1 2012dormice crossing smallgaps (1m) on about half theoccasions they encounteredthem.Even so, it is worth pointingout that the dormice werenot in familiar habitatbut had been taken fromtheir normal home rangeand released in a strangeenvironment where theywere radio-tracked foronly one activity periodbefore being recaptured.The original paper doesnot make it clear whetherthey were first caught inwoodland or in hedges butdoes show that they wereheld in captivity before theexperiments were carriedout. Is it fair to assume thatthe behaviour of an animalin a strange environmenton the first day of its releasereflects typical behaviour?Difficult to say but thismight be behind some ofthe apparent differencesbetween those experimentsand later observations.Recent observationsby Rymvydas Juškaitis inLithuania have also shownthat dormice can have homeranges split by woodlandrides. It may be that theymore commonly use suchobvious features of theenvironment as home rangeboundaries - much the sameway that badger territoriesoften coincide with hedges,roads or rivers - all of whichthey can cross.If dormice can crossdistances of up to 500munder the cover of growingcrops and several tens ofmetres over open ground,including roads, there areinteresting questions toconsider. For example:• when do they do it?• how often?• why do they do it?• does it matter?It is hard to answer thesequestions. Interestingly fiveof the six dormice whichSven Büchner recordedcrossing farmland werejuveniles. Where theydispersing? Sven didn’treport when it happened butdid say that they had to crossthrough crops of wheat,clover and maize whichindicated that it occurredbefore harvesting. We thinkthat our dormice on the A30probably crossed early in theyear but can only be sureof this for the animal whichcrossed twice in one month(May).On balance, it seems mostlikely that long distancemovements and perhapsthose across roads occurwhen the animals aredispersing. However, Iam sure that if there is anincentive to do so - floweringor fruiting trees and shrubsor a good nest site - then adormouse will cross a gap ofseveral metres to get to it.Notwithstanding Paul’sexperiments, it is worthremembering that every fieldin the country has at leastone gap in it - a gate (andno farmer is going to let usplant those up!). Dormiceliving in hedgerows mustbecome accustomed tocrossing moderately sizedgaps although they maywell prefer not to site theirhome ranges in hedges witha lot of them. My guess isthat they probably regularlycross small country roadsand might even have homeranges split by them -certainly in parts of Devonwhere we have a lot of verygood hedged habitat andhuge numbers of tiny roads.I think it does matterthat we should fullyunderstand the animalwe are conserving. I amquite certain that peopleare failing to find dormicebecause their view of‘suitable habitat’ is lessflexible than that of theanimals themselves. Thismatters a lot when it comesto doing surveys prior todevelopment.However I don’t think thatthis means that the work thathas been done in closinggaps and connecting up thelandscape has been wasted.Any increase in the overallamount of dormouse habitathas to be welcomed and thefewer gaps there are, thebetter it is for the animals. Itis also important for other,smaller animals whichThe landscape in Saxony, Germanywhere Sven Büchner carried out hisresearch on dormice.may find it harder to movearound a gappy landscapethan dormice or to attractfunding for conservationwork on their own behalf.The use of charismaticspecies like dormice andotters to do this has acreditable history and hasdone much to benefit thingsthat creep and crawl aroundthe landscape in the name ofmore appealing animals.Dormice are scarce, aprotected species, andnothing we have foundundermines this or theprotection that theyreceive. However we arenow in a better position toconcentrate our energies.Pat Morris’ recent article ondormouse bridges (BritishWildlife, February 2012)shows that there may beways of enabling dormiceto cross motorways usingexisting infrastructure andthat is certainly somethingthat we should concentrateour energies on. On theother hand, I don’t think weneed to worry quite so muchabout smaller roads andtracks.Paul ChaninMammal EcologistPTESthe dormouse monitor 5

issue 1 2012Dormice found on our first wildlife bridgeBritain’s first wildlife landbridge is located above theA21 Lamberhurst bypass,in Kent. It was constructedprimarily to retain thehistoric vehicular accesspoint for people enteringthe National Trust’s ScotneyCastle Estate and wascompleted in 2005. Thewide roadside verges up tothe edge of the bridge wereplanted with hedgerow treespecies to provide a wildlifelink between land on eitherside of the bridge.Dormice were known tooccupy land directly to thewest (map below area A)and a small wooded area400 metres south east ofthe bridge (C), as well aswithin other areas of theScotney Castle Estate. InApril 2010 a new NDMPsite, using 60 boxes, wasset up to investigate areaspreviously thought tocontain populations ofdormice. Part of the rationalewas to ascertain whetherthe populations divided byAn aerial view of the wildlife bridge over theA21. Areas A & C are where the known dormousepopulation existed before the bridge was constructed.Area B has been monitored for two years with noevidence of dormice, whilst the red dots on the bridgeindicate where dormice have been found during 2011.Athe road would be able toreconnect using the landbridge. Initially 10 nesttubes were placed on theland bridge in vegetationboth on the warm southernside and colder northernside. In October 2010 a nestwas found in one of thetubes, but it was uncertainwhether this was made by adormouse or another smallmammal.In March 2011, the tubeson the bridge were replacedwith 10 new nest boxes. InMay, James Hitchin, one ofScotney Castle’s rangers,spotted a male dormousein one of these boxes and anest in an adjacent box, bothon the southern section ofthe bridge on the westernend. A dormouse was seenagain in this area in June,whilst in July in a differentbox on the northern side ofthe bridge (again adjacentto the western land)another male dormousewas recorded. In Septembera female dormouse, withan unknown number ofnewborn young (as theywere pinkies we decided toleave them undisturbed),was found on the northernsection of the bridge, butthis time bordering theeastern land. Interestinglyin two years of recordingwe have not encounteredany other dormice on landadjacent to the eastern edgeof the bridge (B).What does this reveal?That dormice have used thehabitat to the north andsouth of the road and thatbreeding has successfullyoccurred on the land bridge.So six years after it wascompleted, firm evidencehas been found that dormiceare using Britain’s firstwildlife land bridge.With evidence of a knownpopulation of dormice onland adjacent to the westernedge of the bridge, butnot on the eastern edge,it is tempting to suggestthat the female dormicefound breeding near theCBeastern edge had ‘crossedthe bridge’ from the westernside, but this cannot beproved, without furtherinvestigation.We are currently seekingthe permission of thehighways agency tosurvey other land near tothe eastern edge of thebridge to see if there aredormice in this scrubbyarea, to clarify if this mightbe where the ‘mum’ wefound in September mighthave come from. It will alsoindicate whether anothergroup of dormice, about 750metres away, might be ableto reach the land bridge, asthe habitat between theseareas of the estate seemscurrently to be ‘not ideal’ fordormice, the understoreybeing dominated byrhododendron. Animprovement plan is in placefor this area.Additionally James is restartinganother monitoringsite this year, on a separatepart of the Scotney CastleEstate, some 1.25km away,where evidence suggeststhere are more dormice…there seem to be quite alot on this National Trustproperty!So in a quiet part ofthe Kentish weald newdiscoveries are being madewhich, we hope, will lead tomore wildlife land bridgesbeing considered when roadschemes are planned; afterall we have the evidence thatthey work, but do we havethe political will to makethem appear?Steve Songhurst NDMPvolunteer; with help fromfellow monitors JamesHitchin (National Trust),Steve Oram (PTES) and DavidScully, (Tunbridge WellsBorough Council).6 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012Taking a closer look at dormice in torporThere are now sufficientobservations of torpidanimals each year to throwlight on why they do it.Recordings from nest boxesmade years ago showedthat dormice spent up toabout nine hours per dayin torpor in the early partof the season, falling toless than half an hour perday in the autumn. Wesuggested that this reflectedtheir need to conserveenergy at times when foodwas in short supply. In theautumn (minimal time spenttorpid) there was plenty offood available. But in earlysummer the animals riskedspending more energylooking for food thanthey got from the meagreamounts they found. Atthis time, we thought, theywould spend more timetorpid as a way of reducingthe energy cost of remainingcontinuously warm blooded.In other words, torpor wasprobably linked to foodsupply. This was speculationrather than proven fact.However, that study wasbased on relatively fewindividuals. Now the NDMPoffers another way oflooking at the same issuefrom a different direction.Last year over 700 dormicewere found in torpor. Thepercentage of dormiceweighing more than 10g(i.e. eliminating nestlings)that were found torpid eachmonth was calculated. Fromthe results it’s quite clearthat they hardly botheredin August and September,warm months with abundantfruits and seeds available.But early in the season, whenflowers may be finishedand fruits not ready, foodmust be a serious problem.It is at this time that theyeat more insects and alsospend much time in torpor.This is why dormice breedlater in the spring than othersmall mammals. You can’tbe torpid most of the timeand also be producing andraising young.In fact you can see that‘summer torpor’ as anenergy-saving strategy,progressively merges withhibernation (saving energywhen there is no food atall over winter) as winterapproaches in October andNovember. They emergefrom hibernation but stillspend (diminishing) amountsof time inactive with loweredbody temperature until June.They don’t simply wake upwhen hibernation ‘ends’.It’s almost as though theirnatural state is asleep, withonly a small attempt at beingactive in late summer - trulythe ‘dormant mouse’.Given a long series ofdata, which the NDMP isslowly accumulating, itmay be possible to showthe effects of weather andclimate change, based ona comparison of numberstorpid from year to year.Good dormouse years willbe those with lower thanaverage numbers foundin torpor each month; badyears will be ones wheremore animals spend moretime torpid. In turn thismay be related to breedingsuccess. In other words wemay be able to use torpor asan indicator of good and badyears - a nice little study forsomeone to pursue perhaps?Thank you to all the monitors.Pat MorrisJohn Webleythe dormouse monitor 7

issue 1 2012NDMP 2011 resultsEach year, it seems, we canproclaim another milestonefor the NDMP. In 2011 it wasthat 305 sites submitteddata to PTES – that is a 20%increase on the number ofsites in 2010. This is greatnews and shows that moreand more people are willingto be trained to get theirdormouse licence andtake on their own site tomonitor and check for thiskey species. All the data thatare sent to PTES are used toanalyse national dormousepopulation trends but aninterpretation of local resultsand how they may comparewith the broader picture mayalso be of interest to the sitemonitors. The increase in thenumber of sites may maskproblems at some of themand also raise questionsabout how the dormousepopulations at others arefaring.Of the 305 sites returningdata in 2011, 241 recordedat least one live dormouse.44 sites, however, recordedno evidence of dormice and20 sites recorded evidenceSteve Morganof nests only. About half ofthose with no records werenew sites set up in the pastfour years and they mayhave been established onthe basis of a nut recordor anecdotal evidence andare still awaiting their firstin-hand dormouse record.While some of the othersites have recorded a fewdormice in the past, a limitednumber have long-termrecords indicating a healthydormouse populationwhich then appears tohave disappeared. Recordsfrom Bottom Wood(Buckinghamshire) andDedmansey (Bedfordshire)started in 1996 but neithersite recorded any evidenceof dormice in 2011.Similarly Laundimer Wood(Northamptonshire), TigerHill (Suffolk), HomefieldWood (Buckinghamshire),Burnt Wood (Staffordshire)and Forty Acre Wood(Staffordshire) have allrecorded dormice for anumber of years in the pastbut more recently havefound no evidence of theirpresence. It is notable thatthe majority of sites withlong-term records thatno longer appear to havedormice present might beconsidered at the edge ofthe core current naturalrange of the hazel dormousein Britain which could eithersuggest that the dormouserange is still contracting orthat there has been a lack ofappropriate management atthose sites.Sites that have long-termdormouse records in-handfrom at least 2000 butrecorded only nests in 2011include Armstrong Wood(Cornwall), Coughton Marsh(Herefordshire), Lea & Pagets(Herefordshire), RadnorWood (Shropshire) andRedlake cottage meadows(Cornwall). That dormousepresence in a year is onlyknown from nests in boxesat approximately 8% ofsites suggests misfortuneon the timing of the check,a reduced or decliningdormouse population or thatthere is a greater availabilityof natural nest holes in thewood.In both instances of whereno dormice were found oronly nests were found itwould be useful to knowwhy. Has the dormousepopulation moved or diedout? Has the nature of thewood changed over thepast few years? While nestboxes may be considered tobe a crude tool to monitordormouse numbers, andchipping studies suggestthat as many dormice thatare using the boxes, are not,boxes still remain the bestmethod we have. If evidenceof a declining populationor loss of a population isevident from nest boxesit would be useful both toinvestigate the suspectedcause and seek to addressthe problem.There was one recordof a dormouse in a box inFebruary at Jubilee StoneWood in North Somersetand ten records of dormiceduring the annual boxclearance at five sites duringMarch – seven of theseanimals were torpid, onewas active and two weredead. The first litter of pinkswas not recorded until 14May at Brampton Woodin Cambridgeshire – thesite of the first dormousereintroduction in 1993.Sometimes not manyanimals are found in Mayand June – it is a recordof winter survival – but atBontouchel in Denbighshirethey recorded 35 in Mayand 54 in June in their 232boxes. This site is monitoredby the Northwest DormousePartnership and is oneof the sites that is takingpart in a long-term studyusing chipped dormice.Another Welsh site, HalfwayForest in Carmarthenshire,also recorded high springnumbers of 49 and 65 in 200boxes.8 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012May June July August Sept OctNo. sites checked 204 228 197 192 212 242No. negative sites 67 60 56 60 48 57No. boxes at negative sites 3,185 3,378 3,197 3,372 2,366 3,575No. of positive sites 137 168 141 132 164 185No. boxes at positive sites 11,855 13,847 10,564 9,970 13,322 14,589No. dormice 760 1,067 971 1,144 2,352 2,224No. dormice per 50 boxes at +ve sites 3.21 3.85 4.60 5.74 8.83 7.62No. dormice per 50 boxes at all sites 2.53 3.10 3.53 4.29 7.50 6.12The number of sites and thenumber of boxes checkedas part of the NDMP, as wellas the number of dormicerecorded at each, areshown in Table 1 (above).Surprisingly there is not alarge difference between thenumber of dormice recordedper 50 boxes at positive sitesand the number of dormiceper 50 boxes recorded at allsites. Less surprising is thepopulation trend throughoutthe year; numbers are similarin May, June and July, startto increase in August, reacha peak in September andstart to decline in Octoberas animals begin to go intohibernation.Although there is someevidence of dormicebreeding in their first year,this is probably unusualand so the usual transitionof a juvenile dormouse toan adult occurs after ananimal’s first hibernation.By definition therefore,all the animals in springwill be adults. In the earlypart of the year it is easy todifferentiate between adult(>10g) and young (10g), and the number ofyoung (

issue 1 2012NDMP 2011 continuedYoung Female Malen Averageweight gn Averageweight gMax. Min. n Averageweight gMax.March 0 3 18 20.5 16.5 0April 0 59 17.57 27 12 89 18.06 27 11May 53 1.93 303 16.85 27 9 307 17.74 27 10.9June 149 5.45 393 21.38 25 9.5 360 16.99 25 9July 344 5.18 236 18.46 30 9 260 17.26 26 10Min.LEFT: Table 3shows the mean,maximum andminimum weightsof young andadult/juveniledormice recordedby month at sitesin the NDMP in2011.August 507 5.08 224 19.21 31 9 224 16.27 24 9Sept 895 6.05 456 17.81 32 8 519 17.06 31.5 8October 286 7.34 759 19.11 39 10 856 19.44 40.4 9Nov 1 13 72 19.56 30 11 104 19.83 31.5 11nYoung Female MaleAverageweight gnAverageweight gTorpid Active n Averageweight gTorpidJune 13 16.81 3 10 9 15.5 3 6Sept 69 5.54 32 16.12 0 32 19 16.39 0 19October 11 8.86 69 17.45 0 69 68 18.18 0 69ActiveLEFT: Table 4 shows the mean,maximum and minimumweights of young and adult/juvenile dormice recordedby month at Bradfield wood,Suffolk in 2011.John Webley10 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012RIGHT TOP: Figure 2 shows means forthe four months of primary interestplotted over time. 2011 results lookgood, being higher than 2010 foreverything except captures per 50boxes in October.yearsothatwecanRIGHT MIDDLE: Figure 3 shows themean dormouse counts for eachmonth. The top graph shows countsper 50 boxes whilst the lower oneshows the simple means. Means areonly shown where there are at least10 counts in a month.RIGHT BOTTOM: Figure 4 comparesthe four smoothed lines for theindividual months with the curvefitted to data up to 2009 using justMay and June data. The brownSeptember line stands out, butthis is perhaps misleading, sincethe difference relates only to theearly period with comparativelyfew records. At the other end of thegraph, the May line no longer standsout as much as it did last year as aresult of the strong 2011 results.animals but the data on theremaining 290 animals areshown in Table 4 (left).It is surprising that theaverage weights of adult/juvenile dormice at BradfieldWood are less than those ofdormice nationally in 2011.A recent European paperindicated that good weightfemales in spring wouldhave a greater likelihoodof breeding success thanthose females who came outof hibernation at relativelylower weight. This doesnot seem to be having abig impact on the Bradfieldpopulation however as, inSeptember, the percentageof ‘young’ dormice in thepopulation is nearly 58%compared with the nationalaverage of 38%. Weightsmight be down but breedingappears to very successful.We are currently having the24 years of data in the NDMPsummarised by region andcompare dormouse weightsand breeding successacross sites at a regionallevel too. We hope that thismay encourage monitorsto undertake some moreanalysis of their own dataand give us a greater ideaof how local dormousepopulations are faring.In the meantime we havehad the data from the lasttwenty years analysedby month. Previouslythe annual trends werepresented with all thedata from the May, June,September and Octoberchecks collated. Althoughthe general trend hasn’tchanged, by splitting thedata up we can ensure weare comparing like withlike and the pre- and postbreedingnumbers are clearlyevident. There is a greaterfluctuation between theSeptember and Octobertrend lines than there isIndex (2000=100)between the May and Juneones. These graphs posemany interesting questions,but importantly we need tolook at the data against thebackdrop of the habitats inwhich we are monitoringthe dormice and see if thereare any practical steps wecan take to see an upturnin the trend line. We cannotdo anything about theweather, either the mild orerratic winters or the wetsprings and late summers.We can, however, look atthe management of theWoods where we knowthese populations remain.We need to ensure that weprovide the dormice with avariety of species from whichto feed on throughout theyear, a varying age structureof trees (which means activemanagement) and plentifulplaces for the animals tohibernate safely too.Ian White, PTESthe dormouse monitor 11

issue 1 2012Essex and Suffolk Dormouse ProjectThe Essex and SuffolkDormouse Project (ESDP)was set up in 2002, withRobin Cottrill as thechairman. Then there wasonly one monitoring site inSuffolk at Tiger Hill and a fewin Essex such as the Captain’sWood, which became thefirst NDMP site in the county.Funding from EnglishNature bought 10,000 nesttubes – the smallest order amanufacturer would accept.We’re finally getting towardsthe end of that stock now!With the support of Essexand Suffolk Wildlife Trustsand Essex BiodiversityProject we’ve come a longway since the humblebeginnings at that firstmeeting in Robin’s livingroom. Unfortunatelydormouse numbers havedeclined at both Tiger Hilland Captain’s Wood butwe’ve had very positiveresults at other sitesincluding two successfulreintroductions in Suffolk, atPriestley Wood in 2000 andBradfield Woods in 2006,where a whopping numberof animals were recorded lastOctober. There are now tenNDMP sites in Suffolk andseven in Essex, with a smallarmy of volunteers carryingout nest box checks andmaintenance. Our youngestvolunteer is just eight andalready an enthusiasticconservationist.Our current focus isan ambitious long-termproject which will mapthe dormouse distributionthroughout both counties.Systematically workingoutwards from knownpopulations and usingpredictive mapping toidentify other potential sites,we’ve surveyed over 100more. In 2011 we added afurther ten new records toour dormouse site inventorybut there are still lots of gapsto fill on the map.We’ve learned a hugeamount about dormice inboth counties, includingincreasing awareness ofthe importance of so calledsub-optimal sites, of whichthere are many in thisregion including coniferousplantations, large bramblepatches on brownfieldsites and secondary scrubon former quarry sites androadsides. We’re also lookingmore closely at the extentof urbanisation around atleast two of our dormouseTOP: a femaledormousefound with fourjuveniles in anold nest tube atLayer Woods.BOTTOM:our youngestvolunteerhelping withbox checks atTiptree Heath.“hotspots”to investigatehow the effectsof isolation andpossible predationcan be mitigated.Thanks to thehard work ofvolunteers andsupport of partnerorganisationswe‘ve achieveda huge amountin the last tenyears, and it lookslike we’ve gotplenty to keep usbusy for at leastanother ten.Hazel Robson,Essex and SuffolkDormouse GroupMidger Wood monitoring siteHazel RobsonHazel RobsonThis has been anotherinteresting year for dormiceand monitors. Ten of ourregular monitors havedormouse licences and fourhave clipping licences. Wehave a variable numberof monitors each month(from 5-14) as several haveother work commitments,including ecologicalconsultancy.We saw a total of 28dormice during 2011. As aresult of clipping we knowthat three were also seenin 2010. We have had twofamilies. The dormice seemto have survived the hardwinter well but the woodmice have been scarce andthe yellow-necked micenumbers didn’t pick up inthe latter part of the yearuntil November when twoyellow-necked mice tookover the box that had beenoccupied by our family of sixjuveniles in October.We have had our usual20% box occupancy by smallbirds, mostly tits, in May andJune and they seem to havebeen successful in rearingtheir young. We had onedormouse nest in a bat boxtoo.In the summer we wereapproached, through theGloucestershire Wildlife Trust,by the BBC AutumnWatchproducers with a requestto film the dormice and theteam for 2011. After somenegotiation it was agreedthat they would join oursurvey on October 17th. Thefilming team arrived and thedormice behaved perfectly.Six juveniles were found andfilmed. They were very activebut very co-operative andwe were told that it wouldmake a good film and wouldbe screened in October.Unfortunately in October Ihad a phone call from theproducer to say that therewas no room for the filmon the programme. Thatepisode was disappointing,it was a real shame that afterextra time spent surveyingand filming, our dormicedidn’t feature!Dora ClarkeNDMP volunteer12 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012Berkshire Mammal Group dormouse workRebecca ThomasBerkshire Mammal Group(BMG) was set up December2010 and has since thenaccomplished a lot including;mammal surveys, talks,attended events and gainingover 130 members. Therewas a scarcity of hazeldormouse records andonly one monitoring sitein Berkshire; therefore wedecided that surveying fordormice should be a priorityOur dormouse activitiesto date include; a talk onecology and conservation,six nut hunts, making 175boxes, establishing andmonitoring three new sites,developing a dormouselicence training scheme anda survey training day. Wehave had ad hoc recordswith photographic evidencefrom the public, including;dormice in tree guardsfrom estate workers, a deaddormouse brought in by acat, a dead dormouse in anowl box, a school’s natureclub finding a hibernatingdormouse, a dormouse ona bird peanut feeder and anold record of a dormouse in acompost heap.Four of our six nut huntswere successful. And at onesite where no dormousechewedhazel nuts werefound, we now know thatthere are dormice in theBerkshireMammal Groupnut-hunting inBisham Wood.Records of dormice across Berkshireprior to any BMG surveys. (TVERC).The green indicates woodland, blueand purple spots are records 1976- 2010.woodland across the road.The number of volunteerstaking part in the nut huntsvaried considerably from ameagre three people to 29.BMG had a box-making dayto supply the three sites withnest boxes. The timber waskindly cut up for us by BealePark. We installed 50 boxesat two sites and 75 at a third.Unfortunately eight boxeshave gone missing from oneof the sites, presumed stolen,so these have bow beenreplaced. Hopefully whoevertook them will submit anyrecords! Two of our sites usedto be monitored historicallyand it’s great that dormiceare still present at thesesites and we can continueto monitor their dormousepopulations. Although, wehave had no dormice ordormouse nests yet in ournew boxes! Fortunately atone of our sites we have haddormice in some of the oldboxes for a few volunteers tosee and handle. I am hopingthat once the boxes are‘weathered in’ this year wewill have more animals usingthem. We have howeverhad many other animalsfor volunteers to see andhandle.As BMG only had twodormouse licence holderswe thought that we shouldprioritise box checks forpeople who want to worktowards a dormousehandling licence and cancommit to monitoring a sitelong-term in the future.This would allow us toestablish more box sitesto benefit conservationand monitoring ofdormice as well asallow more membersto be able to assist onsurveys long-term. Weproduced a training andexperience recordingsheet (although we willnow use PTES’s newrecording sheet) andran a very successfuldormouse surveyingtraining day.As well as the workwe have done with hazeldormice we also hadan excellent talk on theecology of the introducededible dormouse fromSebastian Perceau-Wells.BMG members assistedwith the edible dormousesurveys in September. We arecurrently trying to locate anyrecords of edible dormicein east Berkshire so pleasecontact us if you know of anysightings.Over the next year we willconduct more nut hunts,run another survey trainingday and will be setting upa fourth monitoring site tothe west of Newbury. Mostof our activities have beenin west Berkshire due tooffers of funding and sites.We do hope to establishrecords in east Berkshire too,if present. At the momentin the east of the countywe have an unverifiedfive-year-old record from agarden and our nut hunt wasunsuccessful.Finally I wanted to say a bigthanks to everyone who hasprovided us with funding,boxes, facilities or time.Daniel AtterBerkshire Mammal Groupwww.berksmammals.org.ukdormouse.bmg@gmail.comThames Valley Environmental Records Centre, 2010the dormouse monitor 13

issue 1 2012Herefordshire dormice in unlikely placesFor some years now I havebeen involved in surveyingand monitoring dormice inHerefordshire’s woodlands.I live in an agriculturallandscape with few woodsand had no idea that I wasliving amongst a seeminglythriving population ofdormice until February 2005.Whilst undertaking theparish ‘litter-pick’ I foundwhat appeared to be adormouse nest in thebase of a tall thick hedgesurrounding an overgrown,unmanaged traditionalorchard. I showed the nestto many knowledgeablepeople and whilst it did lookto be dormousey, no onewas convinced that it wasmade by a dormouse. Thenearest woods are 1km awayand both are less than 10acres. There are a handfulof small copses in fieldcorners no closer than ½km from the orchard. Thereis however a good networkof hedges throughout theparish. It would seem thatthe most suitable habitat fordormice in the area was theovergrown hedge and theorchard itself. The orchardat the time was 2.5 acres ofalmost continuous scrub,comprising mainly bramble,blackthorn, and hawthornscrub amongst the old appletrees. The hedge, like mostof those in the area, is largelyhazel and hawthorn witha variety of other speciesincluding dogwood, spindle,field maple, honeysuckle andblackthorn.Then in the summer of2006 we found conclusiveevidence that dormicewere present in the village:a local cat wandered intothe garden (just 200m fromthe orchard) and droppeda ‘present’ for me. It was alarge adult dormouse. Thecat is unlikely to have carriedthe dormouse far and so it14 the dormouse monitorRIGHT TOP: Aerial photo showingthe whole of the study site andthe dormouse nests (green dots)and key areas of woodland (bluedots).RIGHT BOTTOM: Aerial photoshowing the commercial orchard(Dragon Orchard) wheredormouse nests were found intubes. The photos show clearlyhow agricultural the landscape is.must have been in one ofthe nearby hedges, most ofwhich are regularly flailed.The following Octoberwe gathered 20 membersof Herefordshire Action forMammals to survey theneighbouring farms’ hedgesand two newly plantedsmall woods. Two nests werefound in bramble in thenewly planted woods andone in a regularly cut hedgebetween two sheep-grazedfields. I publicised these findsin the parish magazine whichsparked more interest andresulted in two confirmedreports of live dormice - onein a hibernation nest at thebase of a hedge. Anotherdormouse was seen on±1:15,000 abirdfeeder in the centreof the village during theday, behaviour that getsreported fairly regularlyin Herefordshire and thesurrounding counties. Thena further two nests werereported, one by the tractordriver who noticed the nestwhen flailing the hedge.Both nests were found in‘well-managed’ roadsidehedges well away fromwoods.The village has a numberof productive orchards andone, Dragon Orchard, is a22 acre commercially run,traditional orchard, growingmainly apples, but with somepears, plums, greengagesand quince trees. Otherorchards and grazing fieldsadjoin it interspersed withHibernating dormouse foundDormouse seen on birdfeederDormouse brought in by catDormouse Records Putley,Herefordshire, 2005-2011Dormouse nestMain areas of woodlandHedgeline surveyed 2011 using tubesDormouse nests found in tubes 2011Dormouse nest tube survey of hedge surrounding orchards in Putley,East Herefordshire 2011

issue 1 2012Drainpipe box trialshedges. One hedgerow isquite tall and in parts dense,whilst the roadside hedgesare cut annually. The nearestwoodland of any size isaround 2km away and evensmall copses are in shortsupply. Since dormice andtheir nests kept appearingnearby, the orchard ownersorganised a dormouseafternoon in 2010 to involvetheir ‘cropsharers’ and localresidents in understandingmore about wildlife.Dormouse nest tubes wereput up in the hedges andthree nests were found in thedenser hedgerow.Walking around the parishit is clear that woodlandsare not the key habitat fordormice here. They eitherroam much further thanwe realise or, more likely,are surviving in the parishhedgerows, hedge trees,pockets of scrub, smallcopses and even perhapsgardens and orchard treesthat adjoin the hedgenetwork. It is quite likelythat other undiscoveredpopulations of dormice stillsurvive. These populationsare very vulnerable asthere appears to be littleprotection for the scrubbyhabitat that they areoccupying. Sadly all of thescrub in the traditionalorchard mentioned above,was completely destroyedin the summer of 2011when the orchard changedownership. Without a doubtwe need to tighten upon regulations coveringcountryside managementand take into account theneeds of dormice and othernative species throughtighter laws and moreaccessible advice.Kate WollenForestry CommissionWhen it comes to dormice inCarmarthenshire, we talk alot about our site Rhos CefnBryn (Wildlife Trust of SouthWales). We have four sites inthe county with dormouseboxes up and Rhos Cefn Brynstubbornly remains the onlyplace where dormice usethe boxes. But it’s early days.Most of our sites have onlyhad boxes up for a few yearswhilst Rhos Cefn Bryn hasbeen monitored for almost15 years. There are dormiceat the other sites of coursebut the dormice have otherideas on the best places tonest, and so far the boxes arenot considered.I’ve been monitoring RhosCefn Bryn for about six yearsand the occupancy of thenest boxes has appearedto increase and decreasedepending on how wet it is.It’s true what they say, it rainsa lot in Wales and the furtherwest you go, the more rainyou get. It does make usbeautifully green, but it alsomakes us soggy. The same istrue for the wooden boxes,when its wet they get verysoggy and it can be verywet all year round. In 2008and 2009 the summers wereparticularly wet, even forus, and that really got methinking. Box-use began todrop and I wondered if wecould find something thatJacqueline HartleyWooden nest boxesmay get too dampfor dormice if theyare not well-drained.would stay drier. In 2009we visited Jack Grass in midWales to see the drainpipeboxes he was using. Wedecided to give them a goas they would be drier thantheir wooden counterparts.So in early 2010 we starteda direct comparison at RhosCefn Bryn between thetraditional wooden boxesand the drainpipes. To dothis we erected a drainpipebox next to each existingwooden one, replacing anywooden ones where needed.That way the dormice hada choice at each locationbetween the two types ofboxes. The dormice startedto use the drainpipes straightaway but in 2010 there wasa slightly greater use of thetraditional wooden boxes(see Rhos Cefn Bryn, WildlifeTrust box trials, DormouseMonitor autumn 2010).Throughout 2011, however,the drainpipes appear tohave been a roaring success.We’ve had two motherschoose to raise their youngin the drainpipes and noyoung being raised in thewooden boxes at all. Notonly that but 2011 is thefirst time we’ve seen babydormice for over two years.So the signs are promising.I’m encouraging thevolunteers at our other sitesin Carmarthenshire to put upsome drainpipe boxes to seewhat we get. So watch thisspace!Jacqueline HartleyCarmarthenshire DormouseGroupthe dormouse monitor 15

issue 1 2012Blackford Wood National Trust siteThe National Trust HolnicoteEstate is situated withinExmoor National Park andcovers 5,042 hectares. Thisconsists of a wide range ofhabitats from high heathermoorland, ancient oakwoodland, shingle beachand salt marsh to farmland.Much of the farmland lieswithin the vale of Porlockwhich is interspersed withmany hedgerows and smallpockets of woodland. Forsometime though it was feltthat the eastern end of theVale of Porlock was lacking intree cover particularly sincethe loss of the hedgerowelms in the 1970’s.Blackford wood wasconceived as an idea in 2001by the property staff at thetime and an area of eighthectares was taken out ofagricultural productionand a deer fence erectedaround the boundary. Underthe Forestry Commission’sWoodland Grant Schemeplanting of the new woodbegan in the autumn of2001 by National Trust staffand children from the localPorlock First School. Thearea already incorporated anexisting old hedge bank withestablished native shrubspecies, a stream corridorwith mature alder and willowalong its banks and a smallpond.The planting was designedto expand on these existingfeatures to create a gradededge effect with shrubsto the outer edge (hazel,spindle, hawthorn, guelderrose, dogwood, blackthornand alder buckthorn), smallto medium trees to theinside (small leaf lime, cherry,field maple, willow andalder), and the main centralcomponent comprising ofash and oak. The trees andshrubs are now establishedand management of thewood is moving towards thelong-term aims of creatinga multi-purpose woodlandfor public recreation andwildlife habitatswhilst also keepingopen the option ofproducing someusable timber inthe future.In October 2010Vanessa Mason,a licensed dormousehandler and volunteer forthe National Trust, foundsome nuts that had beenopened by dormice andso we decided to put up27 dormouse boxes. Thefollowing spring NationalTrust Ranger Rob Manicomorganised putting up boxesin two main areas of thewood starting with twoboxes being placed on theback of fence posts facinginto the mature boundaryhedge that runs along theroad.We carried out the first boxcheck on 20 th September.The results were astonishing.Of the 27 boxes present,eight had dormice in them,another nine haddormice nestsinside, two hadwood mice presentand three hadold birds’ nests inthem. There wereat least 23 dormiceoccupying theboxes. In the veryfirst box (along themature hedgerow)a lactating femalewas found and wedid not disturb thenest to check forbabies. Anotherlactating female was foundwith at least two tiny greyyoung (eyes closed). Againthe nest was not disturbedfurther. Another box hadfive juveniles weighing onaverage 8.5g each, and in thelast box, we found anotherfemale with five juveniles.The boxes also revealedsome extremely interestingnests. We found theclassic nests made ofstripped honeysuckle barkinterwoven with greenhazel leaves. But the moreinteresting ones were madeof stripped willow bark.There was also one nestmade with bracken andone using mostly very finegrasses with a few strips ofVanessa Mason16 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012Daisy and the dormouse daywillow bark.Recently National Truststaff and volunteers havebegun to lightly thin someareas of hazel, ash and oakto introduce a more diverseage structure into the woodand create higher light levelsto the woodland floor toencourage woodland flora.The wood from the firstthinning will be stored onsite and in the summer usedto produce charcoal for salelocally. The mature boundaryhedge, which has been leftuntouched for many years,has had a quarter of the totallength laid. Other sectionswill be laid over the nexteight years creating a goodmanageable thick hedge.A further 25 boxes havenow been put up andBlackford Wood will becomean NDMP site. Children fromPorlock First School will beinvited back to accompanyus when we carry out thefirst 2012 check in May. Whata success story BlackfordWood is. The well-thoughtout design of the woodmeans it has become afantastic habitat for dormiceand other wildlife as wellas a wonderful place formembers of the public toenjoy.the poster in Daisy’s frontroom window. Not that manypeople walk past Daisy’shouse - a semi-detached ona quiet street in a Yorkshiretown - but I happened to bevisiting the family. Furtherprobing on my part revealedthe story behind the poster.Daisy had read about howthe dormouse had becomeextinct in parts of its formerrange in the Daily Telegraph(as you do when you are six!),including in Yorkshire. Shewas determined to changethis and had started a onegirlcampaign to bring backdormice to the countryside.I was shocked to hearthat dormice had becomeextinct in the county in thelast century and carriedout some quick Googlingto establish the facts. Mylearning curve was swift andsteep. I had no idea dormicewere so under threat, northat they were a protectedspecies. It certainly wasn’t assimple as sticking a box in anearby meadow and hopinga small furry creature wouldhop on in there. I foundthe PTES website and wassoon in touch with both IanCourt, from Yorkshire DalesNational Park Authority,and Ian White, DormouseOfficer for PTES, who hadorganised the release. Westarted a correspondenceand I found out about therecent reintroduction siteat Freeholder’s Wood inWensleydale, in the far northwest corner of Yorkshire.Then I asked the question...could Daisy visit thedormouse site? I honestlyexpected a ‘no’ but to ourjoint joy the answer was aqualified yes. We had to waituntil there was good chanceof seeing a dormouse.Daisy may have been a verymature six year old buteven the most informed ofnaturalists needs to see theevidence.Finally the big day cameon 9 th October. Daisy’s mumdecided to accompany Daisyand the two set off in drivingrain to Freeholder’s Wood.Daisy’s mum was so proudto be doing somethingworthwhile and very excitedabout the project. I was withthem in spirit all day andthen heard about the day inan ecstatic phone call thatevening.I asked Daisy what was thebest part of the visit hadbeen for her and she replied,‘When we saw a family of fivedormice because they werewriggling and we weighedthem in bags and they wereso cute...and one ran upsomeone’s sleeve!’ And whatwas the hardest thing aboutthe day? ‘Slipping on thesteep, wet banks!’Daisy had helped withthe box checks and hadweighed, observed and evenheld a dormouse. I knewthat it had been worth thesix month journey. Daisyfelt valued by both IanWhite and Ian Court andproudly relayed all the newsand information the nexttime I saw her. Hands onexperience for children isinvaluable and I’m sure Daisyis a convert for life; PTESaims to involve many morechildren in looking after ourwildlife. My thanks go toboth Ian Court and Ian Whitefor their time, patience andgenerousity. By the way,thelast word from Daisy: she isno longer six, she’s seven.Janet M BairdPTESRob Manicom, SomersetCountryside Ranger, TheNational Trust, and VanessaMason, Volunteer, TheNational Trust‘Save the Dormouse’, shoutedLEFT ,TOP LEFT: one of the twojuveniles found in box number 3.LEFT, TOP RIGHT: Rob with the firstdormouse, a lactating female.LEFT, MAIN PICTURE: establishedspecies-rich shrubs along outeredges.RIGHT: baby dormice in the nest.the dormouse monitor 17

issue 1 2012How dormice use their landscapeHaving completed aCountryside ManagementNational Diploma with TripleDistinction in June 2011, Iwas extremely lucky to begiven a PTES internship grantto study dormice. Dr LizzieWilberforce, the WildlifeTrust of South and WestWales conservation manager,supervised my project.I wanted to look at thehedgerows and other linksin the landscape and assessthe potential weak, less wellconnectedareas.A previous WT study in thearea identified a number ofhedgerows that containedgaps but also some that werewell-connected to areasof suitable habitat wheredormice may be present.The key links and weak areasnow needed to be groundtruthed,and woodland areasthat appeared to be linkedto the known populationneeded to be checked to seeif dormice were present.Rhos Cefn Bryn reserveis 6ha and is made up oftwo fields of unimprovedacid grassland which forma “Rhos” pasture of Devil’sbitscabious, the food plantof a thriving population ofmarsh fritillary butterflies.There is a small woodlandarea of 0.03ha with a hazelunderstory that is beingsympathetically managed.I have helped monitor thedormice for two years. At firstit was a little daunting sinceI hadn’t worked on anythinglike this before. I soon settledin and quickly got used tothe work. It was challenging,a delight and a privilege tobe traversing through thefields and woodlands of thebeautiful Carmarthenshirecountryside, carrying outthis important conservationwork.I spent a long time talkingwith private landownersto get their permission tosurvey theirland. In totalI put up 145nest tubes and88 nest boxes,mostly in thenorth-easternand northwesternpartsof the study site(see map). I thentried to enthusethe landownersabout thespecies andto encouragesympatheticmanagement.Their responsewas reallygood andthey showeda genuineinterest, even stopping theirvehicles in the lanes to ask ifthey have dormice on theirland!I found field signs in thewoodland and hedgerows atthe south of the project area,at the Pont Abraham M4services. The river Gwili formsa natural barrier betweentwo farms though the treesoverhang the small river inplaces, and could providesmall arboreal mammalswith a route over. HoweverI didn’t find any field signson the adjacent farmland.The Vincent Wildlife Trustthen carried out a nut huntjust north of this area onmy recommendation anddormouse-chewed nutswere found, providingimportant evidence of theirpresence along the dualcarriageway, and confirminga landscape-scale link fromthe south to the north of theproject area.Once my surveying wascomplete, Lizzie Wilberforcemanaged to secure somefunding and work has sincebeen completed on a stockfence that has been erectedand planted with nativehedgerow species. It is closeto the reserve and dormicehave been discovered onadjacent land. Providingsuitable habitat in such a keyhedgerow will encouragedormice to spread outand take up residence,contributing to theconservation of the speciesin the area!In December I handdelivered a Christmas cardwith photographs of dormicetaken during the project toevery farm and landowneras a personal thank you. Imanaged to see and talk tomost of them and it was veryrewarding to thank them forallowing me access to surveyTOP: map of the study area withfield signs for dormice.BELOW: Richard Pond weighing adormouse.their land and to wish thema Happy Christmas! It wasalso a great opportunity tospread goodwill betweenthe farming community andconservation organisations.I thoroughly enjoyedcoordinating the projectand with the support of theproject supervisor, bringingthe project to an absolutelysuccessful outcome. I amnow the chief monitor andwarden of Rhos Cefn Brynreserve and I also monitoranother site for the NDMPwith CarmarthenshireBiodiversity Partnership.Richard PondRhos Cefn Bryn MonitorRichard Pond18 the dormouse monitor

issue 1 2012Urban dormiceThe Hadleigh GreatWood monitoring site inEssex (37ha) is owned bySouthend-on-Sea BoroughCouncil and is a little unusualcompared with many ofthe woods in the NDMPprogramme, due to itsvery urban environment.The site is almost entirelysurrounded by roads andhouses and is well-used bythe public (and their horsesand dogs) for recreation.The site is now isolated fromother woodland, but partsof it have been coppicedover many centuries andit supports a thrivingpopulation of dormice. It isalso a SSSI and a successfulreintroduction site for heathfritillary butterflies.When dormice were first(re)discovered there in 2002,the Council were keen topublicise it and to engagethe local community intheir conservation, ratherthan keeping their presencea secret. They set up theSouthend Dormouse Group,which joined the NDMP in2006, and the group hasplayed a part in the woodbeing awarded Green Flagstatus. From the beginning,members of the public havejoined us on all tube and boxchecks (although the grouphas grown considerably insize and we have to allocateplaces each month to limitdisturbance).Despite the public natureof the wood, to date wehave had relatively littledisturbance to our nestboxes. Mind you, a ratheraggressive gentleman, whospent two summers living ina tent in the middle of ourmonitoring area and storedbatteries in one of the nestboxes, did cause us one ortwo headaches!In view of the high levelof public involvement,we tend to adopt a lightheartedapproach to groupcommunications and arealways on the lookout forinteresting and amusinganecdotes for our newsletter.While we do not mark ourdormice for identification,a few animals (withdistinguishing features) havegained star status within thegroup! Two of our favouriteshave been Lucky and Rosie.Lucky was first found in July2007. He was very thin andhad obviously been in a fightor two. His head was coveredin scars, he’d lost one earand half his tail, and one ofhis eyes was badly infected.In fact, he seemed so ill thatwe debated whether heshould be taken to a vet foreuthanasia. However, as hehad a healthy female in thenest with him, we figured hemight have been the victorof the fight(s), so decidedto give him a chance. Wecleaned the eye up as bestwe could and put him backin the box, not expecting tofind him again.The following monthSouthendDormouse Groupwith their dormicewe were delighted whenhe reappeared in anotherbox. He had put on weightand the eye infection hadcleared, although he hadlost the eye. This is when wedecided to name him Lucky(typical Essex humour). Wefound him again in bothSeptember and October, thelast time with two females,at which point we decidedthat he was clearly living upto his name and that Essexgirl dormice must like a “bitof rough”.Lucky survived hibernation,but his appearance thefollowing May was the lasttime we saw him. Still, welike to think that he has quitea few descendants living inthe wood.Last year, we came toknow Rosie, whose calmpersonality made her anideal subject for our traineelicence holders. Rosie wasidentifiable because of herstumpy tail, preferencefor two of our nest boxesand her extremely laidbackattitude when beinghandled. We found herevery month from April toJuly and were surprised athow calmly she always satthroughout being weighedand sexed. Her first litter ofthe year, born towards theend of June, consisted offour babies, (two boys andtwo girls) and we are surethat she briefed them aboutthe monitoring process, asthey all waited their turnpatiently and seemed totallyunperturbed by the wholething. We last saw Rosie inSeptember, with a secondlitter of newborn babies, andhope she will turn up againthis year.Membership of theSouthend Dormouse Groupcontinues to grow and wegain great pleasure fromintroducing people to thesefascinating animals andmeeting new characters,both human and animal!Karen Bigmore and SuePortsmouth, SouthendDormouse GroupKaren Bigmorethe dormouse monitor 19

Tony GoddardPetru Istrateissue 1 2012Butyl pond liner nest box coversThere are over 100 nestboxes in Blackmoor Copse, aWiltshire Wildlife Trust naturereserve near Salisbury. Manyhave been replaced over theyears as weather (particularlyrain), woodpeckers andsquirrels have taken their toll.A recent survey showed thatalmost all the boxes neededreplacing as soon as possibleand, having received agenerous £200 from PTES,we managed to make 78external plywoodboxes.The boxes hadLaura Ashley curtainsfitted (only joking),and were erected.The last task was toprotect them fromthe weather whichwas made possibleby the very kinddonation of twohuge offcut sheets of0.75 mm thick butylpond liner by Porton AquaticGarden and Pets Centre, atPorton near Salisbury. Theydonated 10m 2 which was cutup to provide butyl coverswhich were stapled onto thenest box lids. This made theboxes weatherproof, cosyand much more durable. Wealso protected all the olderboxes so that they will lasta bit longer whilst we seekfurther funding for morenew boxes.The dormice will hopefullyappreciate the dramaticimprovements when theywake up from hibernationas butyl is non-toxic, doesnot smell and so shouldn’tdeter them from using theNocturnal tree mammals, RomaniaIn the heart of Romania isTransylvania, a hilly landbordered by the CarpathianMountains, with wellforestedpure oak woodlandsin parts, cultivated fieldsand pasture. Having readabout my study site I wassurprised, on visiting, tofind a large variety of plantsthriving here, the abundanceof good-sized tree hollowsand the thick shrubs andbushes that fruit abundantlyand which are widely spreadthrough the steppe-likeforest meadows.I have spent a longtime studying dormice inRomania, and it seems thereis competition betweenedible and forest dormice forshelters. However I was stillnot prepared for somethingstrange we saw one Augustevening. A hollow, situated inan old pear tree in a meadowwithin the Sterjerenii forest,that had been occupied byedible dormice just the weekbefore, was now home to afamily of forest dormice. Aswe watched, six animals leftthe hollow.Hazel dormice are commonin the region and found inall forest types. Their naturalnests are arboreal, locatedin tiny burrows or at theboxes again this season. Formore information email sue.wiltsimages@btinternet.comThe Blackmoor CopseDormouse Monitoring Team(Peter Docherty, Mark Hill,Tony Goddard, Phil Smithand Sue Walker).bifurcation of branches, insunny bushes or even underthe oak bark. Edible dormiceare common in pubescentoak forests, especially atthe edges, in more shadedplaces. Unfortunately forestdormice are rare so we weredelighted to have foundthem nesting in the wildpear tree.Petru Istrate, RomaniaPhil Smith20 the dormouse monitor