MAMMAL CONFERENCE
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In 2006, a second captive-bred release took place at Bradfield Woods, where there has been an unbroken history of coppicing since the eleventh century creating superb dormouse habitat. Although they had once been present, several years of survey had failed to find them, although the causes for this were unknown. Paul Bright, on visiting the wood, felt that this release should tell us something about dormouse ecology, whatever the outcome. In 2008, Alison Looser took up a six month internship with SWT funded by PTES. As well as continuing nest tube surveys and finding new populations, she also started to assess connectivity through the landscape. We devised a ‘traffic light’ system for evaluating the quality of hedgerows and other landscape features, with ‘red’ indicating where critical links were either absent or not functional for dormouse movement. On the strength of this work, SWT was then awarded funding by Natural England as part of their Countdown 2010 ‘Halting the Decline of Biodiversity’ Project. This allowed SWT staff to work much more closely with landowners to assess the quality of farmland habitat also to give advice on how to enhance habitats for dormice and other species. This was the start of a landscape-scale approach to dormouse conservation. We also had a small budget for hedgerow planting, so it was possible to start replacing critical linkages. We were also interested in trying to locate any other remaining dormouse populations and felt that the density of ancient woodland remaining in the landscape was a key factor. Working with Suffolk Biological Records Centre and combining this data with information about the location of the original Victorian dormouse sites, this gave us a starting point for developing a ‘Predictive Mapping’ approach to trying to find ‘needles in a haystack’. In 2012, we secured funding from SITA Trust for a two year ‘Tracking down Suffolk’s Dormice’ project, thus putting this methodology into action. One of the most significant discoveries of this work was the confirmation that dormice are still present at Bulls Wood in Cockfield (one of the Victorian sites), despite earlier surveys giving negative results. This enabled a further year of funding by SITA Trust to focus on a ‘Bradfield to Bulls Dormouse Corridor’, with a significant budget to improve connectivity between the two woods by planting hedgerows and a small copse as stepping stone habitat. The high numbers of deer in Suffolk means that browsing of the new hedgerows is a serious problem. As well as protecting the young shrubs with spiral guards against rabbits and hares, the SITA Trust grant has also covered fencing of the new hedges to prevent deer-damage. The use of fencing increased the costs significantly, but was essential to ensure the survival of the plants. The survey information we have amassed to date indicates that our Suffolk dormice are now distributed in five clusters based in and around the parishes of Assington, Polstead, Bentley/Belstead, Barking and Felsham/Cockfield. All other surveys outside of these areas have been negative. Given that a hundred years ago Rope described them as commonest in ‘the west-central district’, it appears that there have been extinctions within woodlands in this part of Suffolk.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 51 (2015)