He likes to sleep – also in the Oberland
The Bernese Oberland is not the garden dormouse’s first address. But in sparse forests in a sunny location you can also find paw prints from the “animal of the year 2022”.
Published today at 2:05 p.m
The garden dormouse is the “animal of the year 2022”. It prefers sunny locations on the southern slopes of Lake Thun and Lake Brienz.
Photo: PD/Christian Vaterlaus
Actually, garden dormouse are uncomplicated: They will eat almost everything their small incisors can handle – from all kinds of fruit to invertebrates and occasionally small vertebrates. And during the winter months, which causes the animals the greatest problems in the wild, they sleep – if possible in a deep crevice in the ground or rock, under a rootstock, in an alpine hut or in another sheltered place.
“The young animals that could not build up enough fat reserves are particularly at risk.”
However, hibernation is not as easy as it sounds: about half of garden dormouse do not wake up again in spring. “The young animals that could not build up enough fat reserves are particularly at risk,” says the game biologist Simon Capt.