Researcher hopes dormice will live in tennis balls
Lewis Carroll's dormouse dozing in a teapot was only a story; in real life, adapted bird boxes and cut-away tennis balls are far more likely 'both to demonstrate the presence of dormice and to encourage their survival', according to the proposal for a pilot study that has just been awarded pounds 300 under the British Ecological Society's Small Grants Scheme.
Mr Barry Ingram, of Leicester City Wildlife Project, hopes eventually to complete a countrywide survey of the creature, which is as elusive as it is
proverbially somnolent.
To date there are only 11 known records of the common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius, not to be confused with the much larger edible dormouse) in Leicestershire, and most of those have come from Owston Wood, which Mr Ingram describes as the largest remaining fragment of ancient woodland in the county.
The bird boxes are to be placed along rides in suitable areas: on hazel, oak and sweet chestnut trees, or on the ground under suitable vegetation, such as bramble thickets.
That technique has worked before; it will remain to be seen whether the dormice will take to strategically placed tennis balls, 'each with two
mouse-size holes cut in it', as suitable nests for a litter of, typically, four.
In a wider survey of woodland in east Leicestershire, dormouse-spotters will be looking for opened hazel nuts, chewed huneysuckle and old roosting nests, normally found about a yard from ground level in dense vegetation and not connected with breeding. Bat detectors are to be deployed to pick up the sounds of 'snoring' dormice.
In their familiarity with trees and in their eating habits, sitting up on their hind legs and nibbling food held in the forepaws, dormice are thought to resemble squirrels more closely than mice.
Their capacity for sleep is hardly exaggerated however: six months of hibernation is the rule in the northern reaches of a range that spans the
British Isles, most of continental Europe, the Soviet Union and Asia.
Mr Ingram was unavailable for comment yesterday. A colleague surmised that he was almost certainly in the woods, pursuing his 'allconsuming passion'. Or he might have been, as promised in his project proposal, distributing circulars about his plans for M avellanarius 'to village outlets such as women's institutes and public houses in the study area'.
Mr Barry Ingram, of Leicester City Wildlife Project, hopes eventually to complete a countrywide survey of the creature, which is as elusive as it is
proverbially somnolent.
To date there are only 11 known records of the common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius, not to be confused with the much larger edible dormouse) in Leicestershire, and most of those have come from Owston Wood, which Mr Ingram describes as the largest remaining fragment of ancient woodland in the county.
The bird boxes are to be placed along rides in suitable areas: on hazel, oak and sweet chestnut trees, or on the ground under suitable vegetation, such as bramble thickets.
That technique has worked before; it will remain to be seen whether the dormice will take to strategically placed tennis balls, 'each with two
mouse-size holes cut in it', as suitable nests for a litter of, typically, four.
In a wider survey of woodland in east Leicestershire, dormouse-spotters will be looking for opened hazel nuts, chewed huneysuckle and old roosting nests, normally found about a yard from ground level in dense vegetation and not connected with breeding. Bat detectors are to be deployed to pick up the sounds of 'snoring' dormice.
In their familiarity with trees and in their eating habits, sitting up on their hind legs and nibbling food held in the forepaws, dormice are thought to resemble squirrels more closely than mice.
Their capacity for sleep is hardly exaggerated however: six months of hibernation is the rule in the northern reaches of a range that spans the
British Isles, most of continental Europe, the Soviet Union and Asia.
Mr Ingram was unavailable for comment yesterday. A colleague surmised that he was almost certainly in the woods, pursuing his 'allconsuming passion'. Or he might have been, as promised in his project proposal, distributing circulars about his plans for M avellanarius 'to village outlets such as women's institutes and public houses in the study area'.