16 interesting facts about dormouse
- Dormice can hibernate six months out of the year, or even longer if the weather remains sufficiently cool, sometimes waking for brief periods to eat food they had previously stored nearby.
- Because only one species of dormouse is native to the British Isles, in everyday English usage "dormouse" usually refers to this species (the Hazel Dormouse) rather than to the family as a whole.
- It is a lively, yet shy animal and is kept as a pet by many people in Europe. With regular interaction by its owners, it becomes hand tamed and usually climbs on them.
- Dormice are small for rodents, with a body length of between 6 and 19 cm (2.4 and 7.5 in), and weighing between 15 and 200 g (0.53 and 7.1 oz).
- Dormouse is used as food source by humans, as it stores food in its body, in the form of fat. It is either eaten as a tasty appetizer or as a dessert dipped in poppy seeds and honey.
- They are generally mouse-like in appearance, but with furred, rather than scaly, tails.
- The animal hibernates in winter and the hibernation period can last for more than three quarters of the year, if the weather is cold and bad.
- Dormouse fat was used by the Elizabethans to induce sleep.
- Dormice breed once or maybe twice a year, producing litters with an average of four young after a gestation period of 21-32 days.
- During hibernation, the body functions of a dormouse slow down (heart rate and body temperature is lowered) and it takes a lot of time to move itself.
- They can live for as long as five years.
- Its long hibernation period has led people to call it by names like dory mouse, dozing mouse, sleeper, and sleep mouse.
- It is from this trait that they got their name, which comes from Anglo-Norman dormeus, which means "sleepy (one)"; the word was later altered by folk etymology to resemble the word "mouse".
- Dormouse lives in nests that are built of grass and interwoven with honey suckle, either a few feet above the ground in brambles or in the forest canopy.
- The edible dormouse was considered a delicacy in ancient Rome, either as a savoury appetizer or as a dessert (dipped in honey and poppy seeds).
- Dormice to this day are eaten in Slovenia.
