Are dormice waking up to global warming?

Hazel dormice are in steep decline across the UK, with the national population decreasing by around 72% since 1993(1). A significant cause of this is loss and fragmentation of suitable habitat; however, the effects of climate change, particularly on hibernation behaviour and food availability, remain largely unstudied. This PhD project aims to address this by analysing the Woodland Trust’s Nature’s Calendar dataset(2) and the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme(3) dataset in conjunction with UK climate projections. 1. Goodwin, C. E. D. et al. (2017) Voluntary recording scheme reveals ongoing decline in the United Kingdom hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius population, Mammal Review, 47(3), pp. 183–197. doi: 10.1111/mam.12091. 2. https://naturescalendar.woodlandtrust.org.uk/ 3. https://ptes.org/campaigns/dormice/