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One ofÌýthe most quintessentially English woodland creatures is the, very cute and tiny, dormouse. Over the last one hundred years or so, they have been in decline and have become one of our most endangered mammals. This is due to the destruction of their natural ancient woodland habitat.

Waiting patiently to be released

The tide is now turning as dormice are being re-introduced to 16 sites across England. One of those is Freeholders' Wood near Aysgarth in the Yorkshire Dales. In June 2008, 35 dormice were released in a joint venture by conservation organisations.

Dr Tim Thom, senior wildlife conservation officer from the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, explains how the project has worked:

“The dormice are bred in captivity in London and Paignton Zoos and then shipped up to us. We put them in specially designed cages in the woods. So for the first 10 days they are actually kept in captivity and we feed them every day. Then we open little doors in the cages and they can start to move about, but we give them a bit of extra food now and then. Eventually we reduce the amount of food and they’re off fending for themselves in the wild.

The dormice are put in release cages

“There are several reasons for putting them back: One is they should be part of the woodland wildlife, so it’s trying to get them back to where they belong. They can’t actually get there themselves because they don’t like to cover open ground. If you’ve lost a lot of the woodland they can’t actually get here.

Also, to be honest, they’ve got that cute factor and it allows us to use them as a way of raising awareness and funding for a lot more woodland work. We’re working with neighbouring landowners to plant up woodland and hedgerows to connect up all the little fragments.Ìý

“The project has been a huge success. We’ve had a brilliant year, probably one of the best releases of the 16 in England. We released 35 in the first place and they got very busy over the summer and bred very well. We’ve now got 58!

A dormouse peeking out of a nest box

"Most of those are youngsters and they’re all a good size so hopefully, when they go into hibernation, they’ll be fat enough to get through the winter. We’ll check them again next spring and hopefully find them in the boxes again next year.�

The reintroduction in Freeholders' Wood is one of sixteen in England over the last 15 years and is a collaboration between Natural England, People’s Trust for Endangered Species, the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Common Dormouse Captive Breeders Group and the Zoological Society of London.Ìý