licensed dormouse handlers?

[Meadowcopse]

Are dormice absolute hibernators, or do they come out to snack?

I've got a fair few rosehips in the mature hedgerow that are gnawed / chewed and a few loose ones in the hedge base partly chewed.

I've thrown a bag of hazelnuts around for when I get home, to see if they have the distinctive clean cut bitten hole...

Daniel

(Chester & north-sea)

[Exeldama]

They can come out but doing so can be fatal. They are truer hibernators than the rest whom do pop out for food when the weather improves a bit.... it takes sustained temp change to rouse them, but as said a sudden drop bcak can be "urrrrrgh".

[Ianwhite]

Dormice will wake from hibernation if the temperature warms; I've seen them in Staffordshire in January while snow was on the ground. Harsh winters are good for dormice as continual low temperatures will encourage them to remain asleep while fluctauting temperatures in a mild winter can make them wake up. It is thought that more dormice die during hibernation than due to any other factor.

Dormice eat hazelnuts on the tree and are unlikely to come to ground to feed; the best way to provide supplementry food is probably in a bird feeder. And further bad news, if you're in Chester I'm afraid that the culprit chewing your rosehips is unlikely to be dormice as there's only one known population in the county.

[Meadowcopse]

I guess the clue is in the latin first part of the name for their winter dormancy.

I tried to be clever with the hazelnuts, hoping the tooth profile might provide definitive identification, as I haven't seen the various small mammals that other evidence suggest inhabit the hedgerow.

I'm only a few miles from a documented reintroduction project, and have 100m of hedge to potentially layer before spring - hence the concern...