Photo from Wikimedia Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Remember reading about the dormouse at Alice’s un-birthday party in Wonderland? Or did you happen to see the dormouse at that party popping out of a teapot in the film? Last question, did you ever wonder what the heck a dormouse was?
From Wikipedia;
Dormice are small for rodents, with a body length of between 6 and 19 cm (2.4 and 7.5 in), and weighing between 15 and 200 g (0.53 and 7.1 oz). They are generally mouse-like in appearance, but with furred, rather than scaly tails. They are largely but not exclusively arboreal animals, and are agile and well adapted to climbing. Most species are nocturnal. Dormice have an excellent sense of hearing, and signal each other with a variety of vocalisations.
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One of the most notable characteristics of those dormice that live in temperate zones is hibernation. Dormice can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather remains sufficiently cool, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby. During the summer, they accumulate fat in their bodies, to nourish them through the hibernation period.
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Dormice breed once or maybe twice a year, producing litters with an average of four young after a gestation period of 21-32 days. They can live for as long as five years. The young are born hairless, and helpless, and their eyes do not open until about eighteen days after birth. They typically become sexually mature after the end of their first hibernation. Dormice live in small family groups, with home ranges that vary widely between species, and depending on the availability of food
If the Dormouse comes out of hibernation and finds there is a lack of food for his neighborhood or the weather is cold and wet, he will curl up into a ball and go to sleep. This is called torpor which is like a shorter hibernation.
Altogether the Dormouse spends most of its life sleeping in either hibernation in winter or torpor in summer. They make nests under vegetation where they live and sleep the winter away then rouse in the nicer weather to have a family before back to sleep for them.
The Hazel Dormouse which is pictured above this post is the only Dormouse that is native to The British Isles and is the animal referred to most frequently when the British use the term Dormouse. The Hazel Dormouse is a European Protected Species protected in the UK by The Wildlife and Countryside Act.
Now to see a Dormouse do what it does best…sleep. Plus it turns out this particular Dormouse snores very loudly. He is resting in the hand of the zookeeper who found him and he doesn’t appear to have a care in the world.
I can’t speak for anybody else, but that is about the cutest little Dormouse I have ever seen. Of course, in truth I have to say I haven’t seen that many. That doesn’t matter. he is still the cutest.
