Summer and autumnal activity patterns of juvenile and adult Dryomys nitedula were investigated in the wild using infrared motion sensor cameras. The study revealed that the forest dormouse is mainly crepuscular and nocturnal during the summer and autumn. Foraging activity started on average 8 min before sunset in June and shifted towards 26 min after sunset in September. The activity usually ended 40 min before sunrise independently of the season. The investigative activity around the nestboxes had three main periods: one between 20:00 and 22:00, one around midnight between 00:00 and 01:00, and a third one before sunrise between 4:00 and 6:00. Diurnal activity was also recorded but it occurred mainly in autumn and was restricted to the nestbox entrance; animals never switched nestboxes during the day if not disturbed. During the night activity, dormice used to investigate almost all nestboxes within their territory. However they showed preferences for only a few nestboxes which were used more frequently as daytime resting sites.
Number of nipples varied between ten and twelve in a sample of 51 female edible dormice Glis glis from Slovenia. Ten nipples were by far the most common condition (82 % of specimens) and only two females had twelve. Animals with eleven nipples were asymmetric in the anterior inguinal pair. Three females from Monte Gargano (Italy) had 10, 11 and 11 nipples, but the asymmetric pair was the posterior abdominal one. Since the prevailing condition among dormice (family Gliridae) is eight nipples, it is suggested that high nipple count in the edible dormouse is an ecological adaptation to a multi-annual variation in resources. Due to irregularities in mast-production years, females do not reproduce annually, which possess demands for larger litters. Either the anterior inguinal (Slovenia) or posterior abdominal pair (Italy) is involved in a switch from ten to twelve nipple condition, with the difference possibly showing a geographic pattern.
V článku je popsáno neobvyklé hemisynantropní chování plcha lesního (Dryomys nitedula) v domě v Oderských vrších nedaleko Bílovce (okres Nový Jičín). Zjištěný jedinec si ve dnech 14.-16. srpna vybudoval hnízdo v květináči s dračincem (Dracaena sp.), které bylo tvořeno suchými listy rostliny a ozdobnými krajkami., This article describes an unusual hemisynanthropic behaviour of one individual of the Forest Dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) observed at a house in the Oderské vrchy mountains near Bílovec (Nový Jičín district). On August 14-16, this dormouse built a nest in a flowerpot containing a Dracaena plant out of its dry leaves and also decorative lace., and Patrik Molitor.