This is so cute, we don't have dormice here, but of course we have all heard of them because of Alice's tea party!
'Don't worry, he's okay! He's just sleeping.
He's a dormouse. Dormice hibernate in the winter in nests that they make hidden away on the ground. In Britain the dormouse may spend up to 1/3 of its life in hibernation. Dormice usually enter hibernation at the time of the first frost, when nearly all food is gone. Dormice rely upon fat reserves gathered in the summer and autumn, and during hibernation they loose about a quarter of their body weight.
Surrey Wildlife Trust Mammal Project Officer, Dave Williams, took this lovely footage of a dormouse in torpor (hibernation).
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They don't normally snore like this, but don't worry. This one was fine really and in expert hands. He was only removed briefly from his nest to be weighed and check he has enough fat reserves to sleep on through until spring.'
Hibernation is such an amazing phenomenon! I sometimes wish we humans were hibernatory!
I guess because I am a cat lover, i have always felt sorry for all our rodent friends, as my cats have always been hunters..and these little creatures really are vulnerable..always felt vicariously guilty.