Hazel dormice are elusive, woodland mammals with large black eyes, golden-brown fur and long black whiskers. Their tiny size means that a fully-grown adult would fit neatly in the palm of the average hand.

These nocturnal animals sleep during the day in nests woven from leaves, grasses and shredded honeysuckle bark. On spring and summer nights they scamper along branches and up and down tree trunks foraging for food including flowers, nectar from honeysuckle, berries, and insects. Then during the autumn the dormouse is on a mission to put on weight ahead of its six-month hibernation, with hazelnuts and other fat and protein-rich foods on the menu.

Every summer our ecologists record the numbers and weight of dormice in our woodland reserves. While dormice have undergone significant declines in recent decades, several dormice, including young, were discovered in monitoring boxes at Moor Copse last year – the first to be recorded in boxes since 2016, and very encouraging news for a species under threat nationally.