What does it look like?
It can easily be recognised by its thick furry tail, bright golden-brown colour and bulging black eyes. It is about 70mm (2") long with a tail of similar length. Its weight varies from 17g (about the weight of two £1 coins) up to 40g at the start of hibernation. Juveniles are about half adult weight.

Am I likely to see one?
As the dormouse is rare, strictly nocturnal (active at night) and usually forages for food often high in the tree tops or in hazel thickets, rarely coming to the ground, you're not likely to be lucky enough to see one. The best indication of its presence is characteristically chewed hazelnuts on the woodland floor. The dormouse opens the nut by making a small round neat hole on one side and leaves tooth marks on the nut surface but not on the cut edge.

Where does it live?
We don't know its exact distribution but it is found in deciduous woodland and thick hedgerows mainly in southern counties from Cornwall to Kent northwards to Herefordshire and Northamptonshire. There are scattered records north of here including the Lake District and Northumberland. There are also scattered records for parts of Wales but it is not found in Scotland. In Suffolk, most of the records come from the south of the county, within the Stour Valley.

What does it eat?
It feeds on flowers, pollen, fruit, insects and ripe nuts. These are available in turn as the summer progresses so the dormouse needs a habitat containing a good variety of shrubs and tree species to ensure a continuous supply of food. Hazel, honeysuckle, bramble and oak are particularly important food sources.

What does it do during the day?
It sleeps during the day in a nest, often in a hollow tree branch or deserted bird's nest. Dormice construct their own nests from shredded honeysuckle bark woven into a ball, which they often surround with layers of leaves. These nests may also be out in the open, close to the ground, typically in low bramble bushes. They also take readily to nest-boxes - designed specially for them with the entrance against the trunk to prevent access by birds.

Do dormice hibernate?
Yes, the old English name for the animal is 'the sleeper'. They usually hibernate from the first frosts, often in October and November and are not active again until April or May. The hibernation nest is built on or near the ground and the animal curls into a ball and goes to sleep. Their body temperature drops to that of the surroundings and the heart and breathing rate are often reduced by 90% or more.

How many young does it produce?
Dormice have one or occasionally two litters a year, usually of about four young. The animal is very sensitive to the weather and in years when food is scarce and when bad weather has prolonged hibernation or restricted the amount of time it can spend feeding during the night, most litters may not be produced until August or September. In some years dormice may not produce young until October and, in those cases, it is unlikely that the young dormice will build up sufficient fat reserves to survive the winter. The dormouse does, however, live for up to 5 years, longer than other small rodents.

Why are dormice now so rare?
The main causes of the major decline of the dormouse over the last 100 years are the loss and fragmentation of its woodland habitat and changes in woodland management practices. Dormice are reluctant to cross open country and so if a wood becomes isolated and too small to provide sufficient habitat for the animal's needs it becomes locally extinct. Loss of ancient hedgerows is also likely to be significant.

Coppicing - cutting trees and woody shrubs to ground level periodically to provide wood for various purposes such as fencing materials - was once widespread. This traditional management created ideal habitat with sprawling branches to provide pathways for dormice above ground, plenty of different shrub species and not too much shade from big trees overhead. Although there is increasing interest in reviving coppice management it is important to ensure that there is a long enough rotation between coppicing (ideally 15-20 years) to provide fruiting hazel and that the cleared areas are not too large.

Are dormice legally protected?
Yes, dormice are strictly protected by law and may not be collected, sold or disturbed in any way. A licence is needed (from English Nature or the Countryside Council for Wales) to inspect nest boxes used by dormice.

What can be done to help?
In order to help them, we need to know where they are. The best way that we know of finding out if dormice use a wood is to look for hazel nut shells that they have opened to get at the nut inside. Dormice open these nuts while they are green and still on the tree, but the shells turn brown once they fall to the ground. Other animals like hazel nuts too, but quite often it's possible to tell what has opened the nut. Birds and squirrels usually split nuts completely in half or smash the shells in pieces, but small rodents (mice, voles and dormice) gnaw neat holes in the shell and leave characteristic marks around the edge. In the case of dormice these marks are quite distinctive and finding dormouse eaten nuts forms the basis of our survey.

Dormice are one of the short-listed species in the national Biodiversity Action Plan for which The Wildlife Trusts have offered to take responsibility. In the last century these appealing creatures have disappeared from seven counties and have become increasingly uncommon in remaining areas.

The distribution of dormice in East Anglia has been very localised in historic times. Rope, in 1885, described them as being scarce in Suffolk though common in Essex. In the1930s Ticehurst recorded reports of dormice as far north in the county as Bury St. Edmunds, Tostock and Thurston Since then, however, the only reliable records have come from the Stour Valley from Bures to East Bergholt and the woods south of Ipswich. The main exception to this is Suffolk Wildlife Trust's Bradfield Woods National Nature Reserve where they seem to benefit from the variety of habitats produced by coppicing.

Dormice are mainly found in large ancient woodlands where there is a good variety of shrub and tree species to ensure a continuous supply of food at different times of the year. Honeysuckle, bramble, oak, hazel and sweet chestnut are particularly important sources of flowers, fruit, insects and nuts. Dormice have also been found in ancient hedges and green lanes especially where there is plenty of hazel.

Habitat fragmentation
The main reasons for the decline of the dormouse is thought to be the fragmentation of habitat and the reduction of coppicing in ancient woodlands. Since 1945 thousands of miles of Suffolk's hedges have been removed. As dormice are reluctant to cross open country, the linking of woodlands by hedgerow corridors is vital. In the 1960s many of Suffolk's largest ancient woods were clear-felled and replanted with conifers leading to a loss of food sources and almost certainly, dormice. Many other woodlands were uprooted completely including 130 acres of Bradfield Woods. For those that remained the decline of coppicing led to a overshading of hazel and bramble and therefore a loss of important food.

Today the picture is more positive with legal protection for ancient hedges and the restoration of coppicing in many ancient woods. Woodlands, such as Arger Fen (owned by Suffolk County Council) where dormice are still found, are being restored s conifers are felled. For some dormice populations this will have come too late.

Surveying in Suffolk
Survey work is underway to establish the conservation status of dormice in Suffolk. Since dormice are strictly nocturnal and usually forage in the tree canopy, the chance of coming across any is extremely unlikely. The survey depends on looking for eaten hazelnuts - an important food source which enable dormice to put on weight for winter hibernation. The nuts are opened in a distinctive way leaving a neat round hole with a steeply sided inner edge which is unmistakable once seen.

Protect a dormouse