Hazel dormouse

Description:

The hazel dormouse has golden-brown fur and large black eyes. It is a nocturnal creature and spends most of its waking hours among the branches of trees looking for food. It will make long detours rather than come down to the ground and expose itself to danger.

Habitat:

His lifestyle is arboreal, living in bushy vegetation zones such as brambles. He lives in trees and flowing with agility on the thinnest branches. It feeds on buds, flowers , berries , seeds and insects. In case of alarm, he is able to remain still clinging to a branch like a dead leaf. In autumn, it consumes hazelnuts and beechnuts. With the approach of winter, having made ​​appreciable fat reserves, it builds a nest at ground level under dead leaves, where it will spend the winter in hibernation at a very low body temperature. This lethargy is interspersed with short periods of waking.

Notes:

This one climb a bramble branch a few meter from us while we were eating outside. Spotted near a forest in a rural area of Creuse , France.