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Nest site selection and use of other habitats by the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius in Voeren (Flanders)
... Once on the ground, hazel dormice generally build nests for individual use (Vogel and Frey, 1995) although communal nests have been reported at least once (see Juškaitis, 2014). These nests are constructed in a similar way to the ones built in the canopy earlier in the year, using locally sourced materials (Gubert et al., 2022;Verbeylen et al., 2017) and can be occupied for several months at a time (Juškaitis, 2014). ...
... Most previous research has focused on the physiology of hibernation in captive animals (Pretzlaff et al., 2021;Walhovd, 1976;Walhovd and Jensen, 1976). Others describe where winter nests have been found (Gubert et al., 2023;Verbeylen et al., 2017;Bright, 1992) as well as the size of winter nests (Vogel and Frey, 1995;Kahmann and von Frisch, 1950). But little is known about the winter behaviour of wild hazel dormice. ...
... Many studies on hazel dormice ecology during the active season have successfully employed telemetry (see summary in Juškaitis, 2014 and, to a lesser extent, used this method to locate hibernacula (Gubert et al., 2023;Lemmers et al., 2022;Verbeylen et al., 2017;Bright and Morris, 1996). This technique might be helpful in addressing gaps in behaviour during the period prior to hibernation, particularly with respect to the use of resting places and ranging. ...
The hazel dormouse is mainly an arboreal species with nocturnal habits that, in northern European countries, moves down to the ground to hibernate in the autumn where they stay until spring at locations not well understood. To prepare for hibernation, dormice accumulate fat reserves necessary to maintain vital bodily functions when food supply is lower and the energy cost of staying active exceeds the amount of energy that can be harvested in their habitat.
Little is known about the hibernation ecology of hazel dormice or where they go in the winter. in this study, different methods to identify dormouse hibernacula were used: telemetry, systematic searches, and wildlife detection dogs. The movements of 31 individuals prior to and during hibernation were observed using radiotelemetry. Weight measurements of eight wild hazel dormice were recorded during the hibernation period and the rate of weight loss of each individual calculated as proportion of body mass per day.
A total of 44 hazel dormouse hibernacula were identified: 24 by telemetry, 20 by systematic searches and none by wildlife detection dogs. Telemetry results indicated that dormice selected sites for their hibernaculum within 43 m (SD=30) from the place where they were captured while active, suggesting that hibernation normally takes place within their home range. The timing of hibernation varied amongst individuals, with some dormice remaining active and feeding throughout the month of December. On average dormice lost 0.47% of their body mass per day during hibernation bouts.
Despite dormice hibernating largely in leaf litter on the woodland floor, often at conspicuous locations, detecting hibernacula without the use of radiotelemetry proved labour intensive but possible through systematic searches. The fact that hazel dormice lose a relatively high proportion of their body mass during the winter highlights the challenges wild animals face to survive hibernation.
... Nest materials are an important resource for hazel dormice and the knowledge of possible preferences is beneficial in the conservation management of the species. Several studies have been conducted on the nest material of the hazel dormouse in England, Ukraine, Slovakia, Russia, Belgium, Moldova, Germany, Austria, and Lithuania [1,[25][26][27][34][35][36]. The main nest materials, grass and leaves, can be found in most habitats. ...
... Henze and Gepp (2004, as cited in [1]) found that oak leaves were too hard and therefore not used for nest construction. The same was found by Verbeylen et al. (2017) [36], where tougher leaves from, e.g., ivy, hawthorn, oak, and beech were used less frequently. However, in Moldova, both Lozan (1970, as cited in [1]) and Airapetyants (1983, as cited in [1]) found nests to most often include oak leaves. ...
... Here, Juškaitis (1997) [37] found that hazel leaves are often used as a nest material, while beech leaves are not. Furthermore, hazel leaves are used in high proportions in England, according to Morris et al. (1990) [34] and Bracewell and Downs (2017) [35], and also in Belgium, according to Verbeylen et al. (2017) [36]. In a study from Ukraine by Zaytseva (2006) [25], they found wood material, feathers, wool and anthropogenic materials in form of thread. ...
Hazel dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius) construct summer nests for resting and breeding. The nests are built directly in the vegetation, in tree hollows, or in nest boxes. The availability of nest materials and vegetation coverage may affect the likelihood of finding hazel dormice at a location. The aim of the study is: (1) To investigate the preferences of hazel dormice for nesting materials today compared to four decades ago. (2) To investigate hazel dormice preferences for vegetation coverage at nest sites. In total, 148 hazel dormouse summer nests from the Bidstrup forests in Zealand (Denmark), were analysed. Of these, 82 were collected in the period A: 1980–1985 and 66 were collected in B: 2019–2020. In total 26 different nest materials were found. Beech was the major nest material in both periods, and Jacob’s selectivity index indicates that beech is selected for as nesting material and that hazel dormice may travel to collect beech leaves. Nests from period A contained more beech (W = 1521, p < 0.05) and less oak (W = 1304, p < 0.01) compared to nests from period B. Vegetation analysis showed that coverage of shrubs higher than 2 m above ground (W = 1.5, p = 0.07) may be of great importance for hazel dormice.
... However, in such areas, predators catching even single females before or during the breeding season may have a significant influence on reproduction success in small dormouse populations [85]. In the study by Verbeylen et al. [86], out of 19 successfully overwintered radio-tagged hazel dormice, 6 individuals (31.6%) were caught by predators in spring after hibernation. In Lithuania, four aluminium rings used to mark hazel dormice were found amongst food remains left by tawny owls in one nestbox in spring, and the dormouse density decreased considerably in the area of the study site where owls had hunted [87]. ...
... individuals per km 2 [88]. Predation by tawny owls and other predators may be the main reason for the high spring and summer mortality of hazel dormouse populations [85,86,88]. As a consequence, together with other unfavourable extrinsic and intrinsic factors, predators can cause a decrease in dormouse abundance, which can even result in the extinction of small local dormouse populations [46,89,90]. ...
... Most records of dormice in the winter diets of owls are from countries of Southern and Central Europe (mostly Italy, less so Slovakia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Poland and Switzerland). Radio-tracking studies of the hazel dormouse carried out in Switzerland, Belgium and Great Britain showed that in winter, during arousals from hibernation, dormice may change their hibernacula [86,95,96]. Thus, dormice could be caught by owls when they moved from one hibernaculum to another during the thaw periods. ...
This study aimed to evaluate the significance of dormice in the diets of predators in Europe and, as a result, expand the knowledge about dormouse ecology. A total of 535 sources containing information on dormice in the diets of predators were analysed. Countries of Southern and Central Europe stand out with the largest numbers of target sources. Dormice were recorded in the diets of 54 predator species: 23 mammals, 11 owls, 16 diurnal birds and 4 reptiles. Owls hunting in forests, particularly the tawny owl Strix aluco, are the main dormouse predators. The role of dormice in the diets of predators depends on dormouse abundance, and the highest proportion was recorded in the Mediterranean region, where edible dormice Glis glis are abundant. In particular periods, dormice may be an alternative prey for owls and some other predators. Dormice were seldom recorded in the winter diets of predators, especially in mammals, contrary to what was previously thought. Records of dormice in the winter diets of owls confirm that dormice leave their hibernacula during arousals in the thaw periods. The presence of dormice in the diets of diurnal birds suggests that nocturnal dormice may also be active in the daytime.
... Despite the limited amount of information on materials used for the construction of hibernation nests, previous studies have suggested that dormice use similar materials for the construction of both summer and hibernation nests (Juškaitis, 2014;Morris, 2004;Vogel & Frey, 1995;Walhovd & Jensen, 1976). Verbeylen et al. (2017) is one of the few studies that details hibernation nest material usage based on 19 nests constructed mainly of stripped bark, stems and leaves of several species including clematis (Clematis vitalba), grasses, herb stems, ferns, honeysuckle, bark and leaves of several trees including hazel, ash (Fraxinus excelsior), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) and oak (Quercus robur/Q. petraea), whilst Vogel and Frey (1995) reported wide use of beech leaves and occasionally grass blades in 10 hibernation nests. ...
... Overall, a wide range of materials are used in nest construction, probably related to their availability within the home range; however, the hazel dormouse used a relatively low number of materials to construct hibernation nests, ranging from 1 to 5 (x = 2.22) similar to results presented elsewhere in hibernation nests (x = 2.52 by Verbeylen et al., 2017) and summer nests (x = 3.54 by Bracewell & Downs, 2017). There was plasticity in how the materials were used, with some being used on their own or in conjunction with others, and there was positive relationship between proportion of materials available in the immediate surroundings and their use in the nest. ...
... Most of the materials used in hibernation nests were collected within one metre of the nest. Verbeylen et al. (2017) found similar results in Belgium, although some were collected up to 15 metres away. Bracewell and Downs (2017) found that dormice can cover long distances to collect summer nest materials (up to 50 m), whereas materials for the hibernation nests studied here were available very locally, all within 3m and typically within 50cm of the nest. ...
Trade‐offs between specialist use of particular resources and opportunistic use of widespread materials may present different strategies for survival. Hazel dormice Muscardinus avellanarius are arboreal mammals that in Great Britain hibernate from late autumn to mid spring in nests that are specially built at ground level. Hibernation nests are rarely encountered, and little is known about the types of construction or materials used. Specifically, it is not known whether nest materials are selected opportunistically, based on their availability, or are specialised to suit local environmental conditions. We therefore conducted a study to characterise the main materials used to construct these nests, explore the distances travelled to collect materials and investigate whether regional climate and/or local microclimate have an impact on the types of nests built. Thirty‐three hibernation nests were located through radio‐tracking, systematic searches and incidental finds. Structurally, hibernation nests were built similarly to summer nests and were most commonly constructed with an outer layer of leaves and distinct core section made of woven material. We found no correlation between nest type and the temperature recorded at nest sites. Nests were built using a mean of two materials per nest, which were both in every case available within 3m of the nest. The most frequently used materials were bracken, hazel and beech leaves, and grasses. Dormice were flexible in their use of nest materials, using various materials harvested very locally. However, dormice travelled further to collect grasses, ferns, bracken and honeysuckle, and these materials made up most of the nests in which they were found. There were also positive correlations between material abundance and usage, and suitable materials for hibernation nest construction were therefore readily available within their home range.
... The conservation status of M. avellanarius in the European Union (FFH directive 92 / 43 / EEC, appendix IV) deteriorated from favourable (report period 2007-2012) to unfavourable-inadequate (report period 2013-2018). In addition, population declines are reported from England (Goodwin et al. 2018), Denmark (Vilhelmsen 2003), Sweden (Berglund & Persson 2012), and Belgium (Verbeylen 2009, Verbeylen et al. 2017. Together with possible negative effects of global climate change (Goodwin et al. 2018), these circumstances require better knowledge of the species' biology and habitat use. ...
... In common with similar studies, we observed that use of nest tubes or boxes increased with their number and population density usually decreased after removal of artificial nesting opportunities (Juškaitis & Büchner 2010). Chanin & Gubert (2011) and Verbeylen et al. (2017) reported differences in use of nest boxes compared to tubes, impeding comparison of data acquired with different methods. M. avellanarius abandons nest boxes earlier in the year in the northern compared to the southern part of their range (Juškaitis et al. 2015). ...
... Long-term monitoring (1980-1996 of nest boxes in autumn in different forest sites in Germany (Baden-Württemberg) revealed occupancy rates of 0-7 %, increasing to 15 % in some patches (Gatter & Schütt 1999). In Belgium, in 2014-2016 M. avellanarius used annually 39 to 48 % of the available nest tubes (32 to 34 % when also nest boxes were included) in a railway verge with dense edge vegetation, with annually 54 to 82 % of the adults and 35 to 53 % of the known subadults being encountered in the nest boxes or nest tubes during fortnightly checks (Verbeylen et al. 2017). In the present study, inter-annual variation in nest-tube occupancy (−27 and +33 percentage points) also was higher than in these studies. ...
Studies of Muscardinus avellanarius (Linnaeus, 1785) predominantly originate from the edges of its European range and therefore are not easily extrapolated to alpine habitats. Thus, we surveyed a population in the Triebener Moos (Styria/Austria) from 2012 to 2018 using 100 dormouse nest-tubes at 4 study plots. In total, 113 dormice were captured and measured. Overall sex-ratio among adults was even and body mass increased from May to September. Our results show highest population densities in August and in September varying annually between 1.73 and 3.98 individuals per hectare. Annual percentage of nest tubes used by M. avellanarius averaged 31%, with a high inter-annual variation in nest-tube occupancy. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed that the number of occupied nest tubes decreased with declining diversity of food plants and increasing tree cover.
... In Britain, pre-breeding population densities of hazel dormice range from 5 to 8 adults/ha (Bright and Morris 1996) but can be less, depending on quality and type of habitat. With their low population density, behaviour and nest size, dormouse hibernacula are notoriously difficult to find and apart from some targeted studies (Gubert et al. 2022;Lemmers 2022;Verbeylen et al. 2017;Vogel and Frey 1995;Walhovd and Jensen 1976), hibernation of wild animals remains one of the least known aspects of the species' ecology. ...
... Perhaps, due to nests being well insulated and constructed under leaf litter and other vegetation (Gubert et al. 2022) as well as the seasonal effect, solar radiation had no effect on hibernating animals during low temperature spells. With regards to canopy cover, many of the hibernaculum locations in England and the Netherlands share similar characteristics as described by Verbeylen et al. (2017) in Belgium, where they were often found in open areas within or surrounding woodland blocks. Dormice also seemed to avoid localised areas of woody scrub cover such as bramble Rubus fruticosus, mammal burrows and log piles, possibly as a measure to prevent predation or disturbance by other animals that actively seek out these features for shelter. ...
The hazel dormouse is predominantly an arboreal species that moves down to the ground to hibernate in the autumn in temperate parts of its distributional ranges at locations not yet well understood. The main objective of this study is to test whether environmental characteristics surrounding hazel dormouse hibernacula can be identified using high-resolution remote sensing and data collected in situ. To achieve this, remotely sensed variables, including canopy height and cover, topographic slope, sky view, solar radiation and cold air drainage, were modelled around 83 dormouse hibernacula in England ( n = 62) and the Netherlands ( n = 21), and environmental characteristics that may be favoured by pre-hibernating dormice were identified. Data on leaf litter depth, temperature, canopy cover and distance to the nearest tree were collected in situ and analysed at hibernaculum locations in England. The findings indicated that remotely sensed data were effective in identifying attributes surrounding the locations of dormouse hibernacula and when compared to in situ information, provided more conclusive results. This study suggests that remotely sensed topographic slope, canopy height and sky view have an influence on hazel dormice choosing suitable locations to hibernate; whilst in situ data suggested that average daily mean temperature at the hibernaculum may also have an effect. Remote sensing proved capable of identifying localised environmental characteristics in the wider landscape that may be important for hibernating dormice. This study proposes that this method can provide a novel progression from habitat modelling to conservation management for the hazel dormouse, as well as other species using habitats where topography and vegetation structure influence fine-resolution favourability.
... In previous studies, in which the effectiveness of these two devices has been compared, the results have been contradictory (Bullion et al. 2018;Chanin and Gubert 2011;Lang et al. 2018;Melcore et al. 2020;Verbeylen et al. 2017). Although it is well known that occupation of nest boxes by hazel dormice can be negatively affected by other species due to competition or predation (overview in Juškaitis 2014; Juškaitis and Büchner 2013), to date there has not been any systematic investigation of whether spatial competition has an impact on the occupancy ratio of either nest boxes or nest tubes by hazel dormice. ...
... Previous results of studies comparing the use of nest boxes and nest tubes by hazel dormice are contradictory. Hazel dormice either used nest boxes more frequently than nest tubes (Chanin and Gubert 2011), used them equally (Bullion et al. 2018) or used nest tubes slightly more than nest boxes (Melcore et al. 2020;Verbeylen et al. 2017). In our previous work using data only from the first year, hazel dormice clearly chose nest tubes over nest boxes (Lang et al. 2018) and we suspected that this preference could have been an effect of competition with Apodemus species. ...
Nest boxes and nest tubes are widely used to survey and monitor hazel dormice (Muscardinus avellanarius). A two-year study was conducted in order to compare the performance of the two devices. In one year hazel dormice clearly preferred nest tubes over nest boxes but preferred nest boxes over nest tubes in the other year. The preference for one or other device was mainly influenced by competition for nest boxes with Apodemus mice, which preferred nest boxes over nest tubes during one year when they were abundant. This has to be considered when comparing performance of methods.
... A plausible reason for this is the shortage of natural refuges due to forestry practices. To the best of our knowledge, there are only a few studies that considered natural roost preferences in addition to artificial shelters, conducted on two European species of dormice -the hazel dormouse Morris, 1991, 1992;Verbeylen et al., 2007;Goodwin et al., 2018) and forest dormouse (Pilāts et al., 2012). Almost nothing is known about other European dormouse species. ...
... Omdat de Voerense hazelmuispopulatie grensoverschrijdend één geheel vormt met de Nederlandse hazelmuispopulatie, startte de Zoogdierenwerkgroep van Natuurpunt in 2007 met een monitoring volgens de Nederlandse methodiek van het nesten zoeken(Verbeylen 2008). Een bijkomend argument om deze methodiek te gebruiken, was aanvankelijk dat daardoor vermeden werd dat allerlei materiaal (nestkasten, nestbuizen) moest opgehangen worden in gebieden waar men het systeem zo natuurlijk mogelijk tracht te houden, i.c. de Voerense bosreservaten.Omdat voor geen enkele monitoringmethode eerder reeds onderzocht werd hoe de resultaten ervan correleren met de werkelijke grootte van de aanwezige hazelmuispopulatie, voerde de Zoogdierenwerkgroep in 2014-2017 in twee van de gebieden ook een intensief populatieonderzoek uitVerbeylen et al. 2016;Verbeylen et al. 2017). Hierbij werden zowel nestkasten als nestbuizen gecontroleerd, vrije nesten in de randvegetatie geteld en live-trapping uitgevoerd. ...
This report describes the monitoring networks for the mammals European hamster (Cricetus cricetus), Common dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), European badger (Meles meles) and European otter (Lutra lutra). The aim of the monitoring is to obtain a population trend estimate on a Flemish scale.
Common dormouse is counted annually along transects and from now on by nest box control.
European hamster is monitored on a site level where burrows are counted on recently harvested grain fields.
The number of occupied European badger setts is monitored in a 3-year cycle in known badger area, while the peripheral terrain is explored for badger presence.
For European otter, a preliminary survey of potentially suitable sites is needed as a base for a possible future monitoring network.
For both badger and otter recording opportunistic data in new areas is very important.
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