Dormouse Home
There should be lots of hazel dormice Muscardinus avellanarius in Hampshire, but we don’t know if there are because we haven’t really looked.
In 1983 Pat Morris and Paul Bright identified 20 Key Sites for dormice in southern England, 5 of these were in Hampshire, yet only one continues to be monitored. The Great Nut Hunts in 1993, 2001 and 2009 that were organised by the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species identified additional sites but very few of these have been checked in the interveneing years. The last effort to look at dormouse distribution in Hampshire was in a report written for the Hampshire Wildlife Trust in 2004.
In general we would like to:
- To increase the number of NDMP sites in the county, as Hampshire is thought to provide good dormouse habitat and is between the two best areas for dormice (the south-west and Kent), but is currently under-monitored.
- To find out more about the distribution of dormice across the county and set up NDMP sites that sufficiently monitor this.
and specifically during 2010 our aims are:
- Have at least 5 HDG sites up and running, inputting to the NDMP: Litchfield Copse, Mottisfont, Trinley, Noar Hill & Micheldever Station.
- Communicate with other dormouse surveyors in the county, to ensure that other non-HDG sites are part of the NDMP.
- Prepare a list of sites suitable for autumn nut hunting from old dormouse records and do the nut hunts this autumn to update these records and look for potential new sites for 2011.
- Research and progress other potential new sites as time allows.
Ewald (2004) Distribution and status of the dormouse in Hampshire
