Snoring Dormouse Becomes YouTube Hit
http://dervishcom.blogspot.com/2011/11/snoring-dormouse-becomes-youtube-hit.html
A hibernating dormouse has become a hit on the internet after his comical snoring was caught on film. The slumbering rodent was in a deep sleep when he was discovered by the Surrey Wildlife Trust during a survey of nesting boxes in woods near Leatherhead.
He didn't wake up when he was taken out to be weighed - and carried on snoring while ecologists made a video. The clip has been seen more than 146,000 times on YouTube even though the camera failed to capture the sound of the snore, described by SWT mammal project officer Dave Williams as 'a loud whistle'.
He said: 'It was making a funny whistling sound every time it breathed out. My two female colleagues said: "It's bound to be a male" - and it was!' Dormice, which are an endangered species, spend a third of their lives hibernating.
They are active only in the late spring, summer and autumn months when they feast on fruits, nectar, insects and hazel nuts in order to fatten up for their deep sleep through winter.
Mr Williams, who found the snoring mouse, said: 'Sadly their populations are under threat from living in isolated, poorly managed woodland and scrub habitats.
'They've been turning up in some unexpected places including suburban gardens, some full of non-native plants such as rhododendron and bamboo, with no woodlands nearby.'
He didn't wake up when he was taken out to be weighed - and carried on snoring while ecologists made a video. The clip has been seen more than 146,000 times on YouTube even though the camera failed to capture the sound of the snore, described by SWT mammal project officer Dave Williams as 'a loud whistle'.
He said: 'It was making a funny whistling sound every time it breathed out. My two female colleagues said: "It's bound to be a male" - and it was!' Dormice, which are an endangered species, spend a third of their lives hibernating.
They are active only in the late spring, summer and autumn months when they feast on fruits, nectar, insects and hazel nuts in order to fatten up for their deep sleep through winter.
Mr Williams, who found the snoring mouse, said: 'Sadly their populations are under threat from living in isolated, poorly managed woodland and scrub habitats.
'They've been turning up in some unexpected places including suburban gardens, some full of non-native plants such as rhododendron and bamboo, with no woodlands nearby.'
