The Dormouse Site

A Site Dedicated to the Hazel Dormouse
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Conservation Status

The Dormouse is listed as a UK Biodiversity Action Plan species, having 40 Local Biodiversity Action plans listed on the UK BAP website.
The UK Dormouse is considered to be in decline and extremely vulnerable, however recent studies show a small slow down in this decline in some areas. Over the last 100 years the Dormouse has disappeared from about half its geographical range in Britain. Climate can have a big impact on the Dormouse, firstly altering the time of emergence from hibernation, but also on the availability of it’s food.  The low population density of Dormice and it’s extremely slow rate of population increase makes the Dormouse highly vulnerable to any change in it’s environment.
Changes in woodland management practice, notably cessation of hazel coppicing have had a major impact on the population of Dormice. Lack of management leads to wooded areas having many tall stands, this in turn blocks light to the understory leaving large areas without any ground cover vegetation, removing just a few of these stands can lead to a dramatic transformation and growth of  species such as bramble. Even when coppicing is put back into practice the habitat can be destroyed by over grazing from such species as Muntjac who will eat all the new coppice shoots, eventually killing the coppice stool. Most deer species’ foraging will destroy the under canopy of a woodland, removing vital food species of the Dormouse, evidence of this can be seen at too many of our wooded areas, a height line of vegetation is clearly visible along the borders, the height of this line being determined by the height of the culpable deer species.
Fragmentation and clearing of woodland over the past century has left isolated, non-viable populations of Dormice. Dormice will only travel short distances, possibly as little as 100m, across open ground preferring arboreal routes, however modern agricultural practices since the Second World War have been largely responsible for removing these ‘corridors’ from the British landscape.

IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) list the Hazel Dormouse as “Least Concern”

Least Concern. This is a relatively common and widespread species across its range. However, in parts of its northern range (e.g. UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Denmark) populations are declining and fragmented as a result of habitat loss and fragmentation. In these areas there is cause for concern.

For more details please see http://www.iucnredlist.org/apps/redlist/details/13992/0

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