Microchips for northern dormice
The North West dormice have been monitored and fitted with tiny microchips in an annual survey by conservationists. Staff from Chester Zoo and Cheshire Wildlife Trust are halfway through their autumn checks on the elusive animals.
Experts have been monitoring the populations since 2005, making two visits to each of the sites every May and June, and again in September and October after the breeding season. With the help of volunteers, checks are made on the number, health and sex of dormice living in the woodlands.
The conservationists have also carried out an extensive programme of microchipping to help keep track of the mammals. When the dormice are collected they are scanned by a chip detector, any of the right size that are found without a chip are then fitted with one.
Chester Zoo vet Gabby Drake is responsible for the delicate procedure that requires the small mammals to be anaesthetised before the chip, which measures 8mm in length, is fitted.
Only dormice that weigh more than 10g, aged around one month to six weeks old, are given the trackers. They are fitted via a needle underneath the loose skin on the dormice backs and will remain with them for life.
The team aim to collect a further three years of data, a decade worth in total, in order to better understand the movements and requirements of the dormice. They are considered a threatened species in the UK due to the loss and fragmentation of their woodland habitat.
Chester Zoo biodiversity officer Sarah Bird described the northern populations as "unusual". Although the mammals stronghold was thought to be limited to hazel trees in the south of the country, monitoring has revealed that the mixed woodland sites in Cheshire and North Wales are home to thriving populations.
"Since the beginning of the project we have microchipped nearly 1,000 animals," said Ms Bird, adding that the project is the largest of its kind in the UK and has revealed the largest known population of dormice in the country.
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