The Hazel Dormouse benefits from the highest levels of UK and European legal protection. It has a very patchy distribution in Wales and, in Rhondda Cynon Taf, we are fortunate to support important populations of this enigmatic species. When we wrote the original Action for Nature in 2000, we knew of only four dormouse sites in RCT. All were in the southern part of the County Borough with two in Llanharan area, one on the western side of Pontyclun and one east of Llantrisant. Perhaps the best known was (and still is) Brynna Woods/Llanharan Marsh (now a WTSWW Nature Reserve), where the first colony was recorded in the 1983 ‘Great Nut Hunt’. However, over the years the distribution of dormouse records has considerably ‘filled in’. We now know that dormice are very well established in the Llanharan and Llanharry area, using a network of small, often wet woodlands and interconnecting hedgerows. There is also a thinner scatter of records spreading east, through the Pontyclun/Llantrisant area, and Llantwit Fardre/Church Village, to Ty Rhiw in the east (which connects into colonies further east into Caerphilly). They are also now found in the upper Cynon Valley. The dormouse population appear to occur across an interconnected landscape of species-rich hedgerows, small woods and areas of scrub. The new colony in the Cynon Valley occurs in hedgerows and wooded streams associated with marshy grasslands. There must be new sites and locations to be found in the woodlands and hedgerows of the northern border vale (Tonyrefail to Pontypridd), the Taff Valley woodlands (from Taffs Well to Abercynon) and the Cynon Valley. These are areas which deserve further survey attention.

Until quite recently dormice were thought to be restricted to large ancient woodland sites, where the diversity of trees and under-storey species could provide the food sources and the woodland structure that the exacting requirements of the species demand. Fortunately, in the last decade, dormice have started to be found in other types of habitat. Hedgerows have always been seen as important connecting habitat, but more recent evidence suggests that dormouse populations may be supported by such habitat. Dormouse colonies occur in extensive areas of bramble-covered ‘undercliffs’ at Lyme Regis in Dorset, in conifer plantations planted on ancient woodland sites and have also been found using garden bird feeders (presumably where gardens border woods or old hedgerows). All of which gives hope for dormouse conservation.