The study of granules provides a better understanding of the distribution of micro-mammals: shrews, field mice, rats, etc. These rejected animals contain the remains of night owl prey. Because micro-mammals are so fearsome, the best way to identify them is to dissect and analyze the pellets.
Where do you find them?
They accumulate under the owls and resting places: poles, dead trees, attics of unused buildings, etc. The droppings, which form white streams, are a good guide to finding the pellets. Be careful not to disturb the owls. Avoid making noise and making room for visits. Choose the blackest and most compact balls. Carry it as gently as possible so that it does not fall apart, and put it in a cardboard box or closed plastic bag.
Why hazelnut?
Also called the golden rat, it is very small and hard to notice. Fortunately, he is fond of hazelnuts. Studying the people who bit them allows us to better understand their distribution over the region.
Where do you find them?
Muscaridine hazelnuts should be picked up in fairly dense deciduous or mixed bushes that you like. Or the bocage connected to wooded entities and hedges with brambles and shrubs. Unlike other rodents that eat hazelnuts on the ground, the dormouse eats them directly from the tree. Therefore it is necessary to give preference to isolated hazelnuts on the ground, under the branches, under the full width of the tree. The hole on the cover (see photo below) is special: regular, semi-circular, with a clean, smooth inner edge. Hazelnuts should be stored in a cardboard box or in a plastic bag.
Hazelnut nibbled by the dormouse © SHNA
Where do we put them?
SHNA asks you to clearly indicate where the balls and nuts were discovered. Posters are available here. You have until Monday, October 31 to get the balls, and until Wednesday, November 30 to get the hazelnut, by going to one of the SHNA branches: at Maison du parc, in Saint-Brisson, or at 44 rue du Puits-Charles, in La Charette-sur-Loire.