Dormice project needs volunteers

Taking place next week, volunteers will visit a site near Shrewsbury where Dormice activity has been recorded and learn more about the adorable animals.

Shropshire Council Country Rangers are taking part in the new project called Dormouse Footprint Tunnels, a wildlife project funded by Tesco’s Little bags of Help.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species set up the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme in order to record population trends of the hazel dormouse across the country. Shropshire Dormouse Group, an informal branch of the Shropshire Mammal Group, carry out monthly nestbox checks under license on registered sites across Shropshire, and supply this information to the PTES in line with this scheme.

Dormouse footprint tunnels are a new upcoming technique for monitoring Dormice. They are a safe method of recording good indicators of Dormice activity but creating minimal disturbance to the protected species when collecting species records.

Penny Wellman, assistant country park support officer and placement student at Shropshire Council, is trialling whether footprint tunnels are more affective than recording Dormice using nest boxes.

Now volunteers are being sought to take part in a special event to learn about Dormice, how to make a footprint tunnel and help post them around Poles Coppice, near Shrewsbury where Dormice activity has been found.

This new project is a collaboration of the Shropshire Dormouse Group and Shropshire Council, coming together to protect and record Dormice.

To register to take part go to Shropshire Council’s Country site, call 07458 087305 or email penny.wellman@shropshire.gov.uk

The event will take place on Wednesday (1) at 10am.

Volunteers should meet at the car park at grid reference SJ 39277 04819, nearest postcode SY5 0YL. This is only a small car park, so if it is full you can park at the main car park at grid reference SJ 38554 04192, nearest postcode SY5 0TS and walk across the site to the meeting point.

Hazel dormice are rare and vulnerable to extinction in the UK. The UK population is unknown but there has been a long term decline in both number and range; recently there is an indication that the decline is slowing and as part of an ongoing dormouse reintroduction programme the current range is slowly being extended.

The current dormouse range is Southern England and South Wales and along the English/Welsh border.