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Hazel dormouse

Muscardinus avellanarius

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.

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7 Comments

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 9 years ago

Beautiful animal. Well done.

Thanks for the nomination Fyn!

Fyn Kynd
Fyn Kynd 9 years ago

Your spotting has been nominated for the Spotting of the Week. The winner will be chosen by the Project Noah Rangers based on a combination of factors including: uniqueness of the shot, status of the organism (for example, rare or endangered), quality of the information provided in the habitat and description sections. There is a subjective element, of course; the spotting with the highest number of Ranger votes is chosen. Congratulations on being nominated!

pirucreaciones
pirucreaciones 9 years ago

Love this pic. Congrats

AshleyT
AshleyT 9 years ago

Beautiful little guy, great photos!

Neil Ross
Neil Ross 9 years ago

Sweet spotting, Jifou. He's a cute little guy. Beautiful photos.

Josh Asel
Josh Asel 9 years ago

This is an amazing spotting. Really nice. They have a great backstory right now. BBC Nature did a sweet article on them. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Hazel_D...

Limousin, Tromelin Island

Spotted on Jul 14, 2014
Submitted on Nov 16, 2014

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