Monitoring Campaign over an Edible Dormouse Population (Glis glis; Rodentia: Gliridae) in Sicily: First Report of Mesocestodiasis

This study reports on the health status of the edible dormouse (Glis glis) living in Nebrodi Park (Sicily, Italy), responsible for nut crop damage in the area. In the frame of a monitoring campaign for potential zoonotic risk involving 30 dormice, rectal and conjunctival swabs and fur and nest content were collected for bacteriological and parasitological examinations, respectively. A large presence of fleas belonging to Monopsyllus sciurorum was found. Necropsy of a dead dormouse revealed an infection of Mesocestoides lineatus, whose cysts were found in the abdomen cavity and on the liver; this is the first report of this in this species. Further studies are necessary to identify their role in the environment, considering the limited knowledge of this species in Italy.

Radio-transmitters gnawed by edible dormice Glis glis in populations of different density

In a radio-tracking study of the edible dormouse Glis glis in Poland, 20 transmitters out of 125 used showed traces of gnawing, presumably by other dormice. All gnawed devices were found in a high-density population (8.0–9.5 individuals/ha) and none in low-density populations (2.5–5.5 individuals/ha). Sex, reproductive activity and season had no perceived impact on the damage done to the transmitters.

Findings of overground nests of rodents in the Ukrainian Beskids (upper course of the Dnister)

Materials are collected and generalised on the overground nesting activity of 4 rodent species under conditions of the north Carpathian taiga: the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), the edible dormouse (Glis glis), the hazel dormouse (Muscardinus avellanarius), and the harvest mouse (Micromys minutus). The locality is characterised by a combination various habitats. Common and unique variants of nests of these species are described, particularly the arrangement by the hazel dormouse of its own nests in nests of the Eurasian wren and song thrush, an unusual nest of the red squirrel, and the nesting of the edible dormouse in an abandoned dress.