Dormice

Environment Food and Rural Affairs written question – answered at on 5 July 2005.

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Photo of Mark Tami Mark Tami Labour, Alyn and Deeside

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department is taking to protect and enhance (a) the habitats and (b) the number of the dormouse population in England; and what estimate she has made of the dormouse population in England in each of the last five years.

Photo of Jim Knight Jim Knight Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) (Rural Affairs, Landscape and Biodiversity)

The dormouse is a priority species with an individual Species Action Plan that is led jointly by English Nature and The Wildlife Trusts. It has also been the subject of an English Nature Species Recovery Programme since 1991. The main reasons for the decline of the dormouse appear to be the fragmentation of our woodlands coupled with inappropriate woodland management. The dormouse recovery programme has sought to address these issues. Guidance on woodland management to favour dormice was published in 1996 and has been followed by a series of training courses for woodland managers. Awareness of the needs of the dormouse is now very high. In addition, the Forestry Commission has a large programme to restore planted ancient woodland sites, which will favour the dormouse. An innovative research programme, carried out at Royal Holloway, University of London, showed the importance of hedgerows for dormice and guidance on hedgerow management was published by English Nature in 2002. 'Dormouse friendly' hedgerows are now an option in the Government's new Environmental Scheme. A greatly-expanded conservation handbook on dormice will be published later this year.

As well as efforts to improve the countryside for dormice, the species has been reintroduced into some parts of England from which it was lost. A partnership between English Nature and the People's Trust for Endangered Species, with veterinary support from the Institute of Zoology, has now carried out 14 reintroductions to 11 counties, using dormice supplied by the Common Dormouse Captive Breeders Group. Follow-up surveys have confirmed the success of this approach, with the first reintroduction now more than 10-years-old. The most recent reintroduction was to the Chatsworth Estate, Derbyshire in June this year.

Estimating the number of dormice is difficult as the species is very under-recorded. The first Great Nut Hunt in 1993 greatly increased the number of known sites for the species and a national inventory of more than 1,300 sites is now available through the National Biodiversity Network. More than 200 of these sites now contribute to the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme by counting the number of dormice in nest-boxes every summer. These data, summarised in the report of the Tracking Mammals Project, have shown that, nationally, the dormouse population has declined by 23 per cent. since 1993, though it has been relatively stable in recent years. However, there are indications that the species remains vulnerable at the edge of its range, particularly in the marginal uplands, so there is an on-going need for conservation work. A recent estimate of the national population suggested that there are in the region of 45,000 dormice in Britain.

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