Conservation in Action 2025 (EXTERNAL SHARE) - Flipbook - Page 59
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BRINGING BACK HAZEL DORMICE TO LEICESTERSHIRE
Hazel dormice are Britain’s rarest rodent. Due to habitat loss and fragmentation, they have disappeared
from up to 70% of their range and are locally extinct in Leicestershire. Since 1993, a national reintroduction
scheme coordinated by the Peoples Trust for Endangered Species has been working tirelessly to release
dormice across the UK where they now exist in 25 sites across Britain, mainly focusing on the south of the
UK. In 2023 we supported habitat surveys across Leicestershire (working with Leicestershire and Rutland
Wildlife Trust, National Forest, and Leicestershire and Rutland Mammal Group) to identify suitable sites
for reintroducing dormice to our county, identifying an area of Bradgate Park in Charnwood as the most
suitable site for release.
In 2025, we developed quarantine facilities at the zoo (with support from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund,
in partnership with Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council), that enabled us to provide high standards of
husbandry and to perform crucial health-checks and disease risk analysis on zoo-bred dormice
before release.
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Following this, 21 dormice were reintroduced to the
site we had identified in Leicestershire.
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This included three dormice we had quarantined at Twycross Zoo, along
with dormice quarantined at Paignton Zoo and ZSL London Zoo. Initial nestbox checks have shown that the released dormice are already breeding,
giving hope for the long-term sustainability of this reintroduction project.
Hazel dormouse - Frank Vassen
