The “animal of the year 2023” comes from Bavaria: the garden dormouse has found a last home in the Bavarian Forest and in the Allgäu – and could, incidentally, at least once ensure unity in the Free State.
When hearing the nice word “garden dormouse” some might think of their neighbours: for example how he lets the residents share in his slumber on Sunday afternoons from his deck chair, snoring loudly. In fact, the term describes a cute little animal from the Bilche family, which also includes the dormice and dormouse.
And he also recently described a little animal that has something ahead of most of its neighbors, unless they are fans of FC Bayern: namely to be named German champion. Or, in the case of the garden dormouse, “Animal of the Year 2023”. Congratulations!
Similar to football, congratulations also go to Bavaria. Only a few regions in Germany offer the genus Eliomys quercinus – half tail, half ball of fur with beady eyes – a home, but the Bavarian Forest and parts of the Allgäu are part of it. Otherwise, it unfortunately looks quite unfavorable for the nocturnal creatures, which stand out from the dormouse among other things by a kind of Zorro eye mask.
According to the German Wildlife Foundation, which awards the title to a different animal every year, the habitat of garden dormouse has decreased by 50 percent over the past three decades. On the one hand, the forest stock has shrunk, on the other hand there is too little cover and food in the existing coniferous monocultures, the latter in the form of beetles, caterpillars or fruits.
In return, the garden dormouse offers unifying potential, especially for Bavaria, in times of social centrifugal forces. Otherwise there may be scolded about this and that and against the others, behind such a cute looking animal everyone can gather together. The title holders of previous years didn’t always have that much emotional connection. Either they did not occur in the Free State at all, such as the harbor porpoise (2022). Or they occurred but, like the otter (2021), lead to frustration among pond keepers. And despite all the sympathy, no one wants to let a mole (2020) spoil their beautiful lawn with black mounds of excavation. You are more likely to make do with the noisy garden dormouse from the neighboring property.