Field guide to the most commonly encountered mammals and birds

Here, we provide some basic information regarding commonly observed species (plus some others about which we have had queries).  

Feel free to contact us by email if you have any questions regarding species you have encountered on the site.

For more information about mammals, we recommend the Mammal Society's species hub, here. For birds, excellent resources are available from the RSPB (here) and the BTO (here).

 

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Edible Dormouse

 (C) Martin Grimm (shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)

Scientific name: Glis glis

Family: Gliridae

Appearance: The Edible or Fat Dormouse looks similar to a grey squirrel with the same grey fur and a bushy tail but is considerably smaller and more rotund. It has very large eyes and small rounded ears. 

Size: Head and body 3-19 cm; tail 12-15 cm

Natural history: The Edible Dormouse (so called because the Romans considered it a delicacy) is a non-native species in Great Britain. It was brought into the UK for a private collection in Hertfordshire at the beginning of the 20th century from where an unknown number escaped. There are now thought to be about 10,000 mainly in the Chilterns. They are nocturnal and hibernate during the winter. They feed on nuts and fruit but also eat bark and occasionally insects and eggs.  They can cause considerable damage to native trees by stripping the bark.

 

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