The edible dormouse spends in the underground cavern the whole winter and parts of the
day in the summer months. However, research of edible dormouse activity have only been
carried out on nesting sites, which means that the timeline of the underground cavern exits
use has yet to be explored. In the Rakitna area 10 edible dormouse underground cavern
exits were monitored in the period from May to November 2021. This year, the beech tree
did not bear any mast which is the most important food source for the dormouse.
Automatic cameras were used to monitor the activity around the underground cavern exits
and automatic thermometers to monitor the temperature inside and outside the
underground caverns. The collected data were analysed. The type of animal, the number
of individuals and their behaviour were observed. In the case of a dormouse event the
direction of its movement was determined. 2,860 underground cavern exit events were
collected, of which 252 captured an edible dormouse. It has been found out that the edible
dormouse is mainly active at night and in areas with a greater amount of available food.
Over the months, the night-time activity of the edible dormouse increased, with the
highest activity in August. The temperature inside the caverns is more constant than the
outside temperature. In the vicinity of the underground cavern exits were also detected
other species of fauna, many were predators of edible dormouse. The findings are valid
for a year without beech fruiting and are likely to differ from a year with fruiting.
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