Dormouse

The edible dormouse is so named because it rests for at least seven months during the winter.

Characteristics

What does the dormouse look like?

Edible dormouse has bushy tails and looks a lot like oversized mice. Their body can grow to almost 20 centimeters in length; their tail around 15 centimeters. Large dormouse weighs 100 to 120 grams. Gray hairs cover the back of the dormouse.

It is lighter in color on the belly. It has long whiskers on its snout and a dark ring around its eyes.

Where does the dormouse live?

The dormouse doesn’t like the cold. Therefore it only occurs in reasonably warm areas of Europe: It lives in the forests of southern and central Europe but is not found in England and Scandinavia. In the east, the distribution area of ​​the dormouse extends to Iran. Dormouse prefers to climb around on trees with leaves.

Therefore, they mainly inhabit deciduous and mixed forests from the lowlands to the low mountain ranges. The dormouse likes beech forests best. But he also feels comfortable around people, for example in attics and in garden sheds.

What types of dormouse are there?

The dormouse is a member of the birch family, which includes rodents. There are numerous subspecies of the dormouse that only occur in certain regions.

In Germany, there are other Bilche besides the edible dormouse. These include the dormouse, garden dormouse, and tree dormouse.

How old does a dormouse get?

Edible dormouse lives for five to nine years.

Behave

How does the dormouse live?

During the day, the dormouse likes to crawl into hollow trees and sleep. The actual “day” of the edible dormouse only begins in the evening, when it goes in search of food. Only rarely does the dormouse move more than 100 meters from its sleeping place. For this, he changes his hiding place from time to time. At the end of August, the dormouse gets very tired – it goes into hibernation and only wakes up again in May.

Friends and foes of the dormouse

Like all small rodents, the dormouse is one of the favorite foods of birds of prey and land predators. Martens, cats, eagle owls, and tawny owls are also among their enemies. And people are also hunting them: because they can cause great damage in orchards because they have thick fur – and because in some countries they are even eaten!

How does the dormouse reproduce?

The mating season begins in July. The male marks his territory with scent marks and squeaks to attract females. If a female comes by, the male runs after him and does not give up before he is allowed to mate with him. After that, the male no longer wants to have anything to do with the female and looks for new partners. The female begins building the nest. It carries mosses, ferns, and grass to its sleeping place and cushions it.

After four to five weeks, two to six young dormice are born there. The young animals weigh just two grams. They are still naked, blind, and deaf. They spend at least the next four to six weeks in the nest. They leave after almost two months. Then the young dormouse is almost fully grown. But they still have to eat a lot to reach a weight of at least 70 grams. This is the only way they can survive their first long winter break. The young are sexually mature the next spring when they awake.

How does the dormouse communicate?

Anyone who has ever had a dormouse in the attic knows: the cute rodents can make a lot of noise. They whistle, squeak, grumble, bleat, and grumble. And they do it very often.

Care

What does the dormouse eat?

The menu of the dormouse is large. They eat fruits, acorns, beechnuts, nuts, berries, and seeds. But the animals also gnaw the bark of willows and larches and consume the buds and leaves of beeches. However, dormouse also likes animal food: Cockchafers and other insects taste just as good to them as young birds and bird eggs. Edible dormouse is known to be very voracious.

This is because the animals prepare for the winter and eat up a layer of fat. During hibernation, they feed on this fat pad and lose between a quarter and a half of their weight.

The posture of the dormouse

Like many other rodents, dormouse moves around a lot and gnaw constantly. Therefore they are not suitable as pets. If you find young orphaned dormouse, it is best to take them to a wildlife sanctuary. There they are professionally fed and cared for.