About eight weeks after a family of dormouse was found in the bathroom cupboard of a Munich apartment, the animals were released into the wild. Sabine Gallenberger from the Wild Animal Orphan Protection Association announced this on Monday. In mid-July, the residents of the apartment heard a beeping sound coming from a drawer and called the fire department, who then discovered the dormouse.
The animals were cared for in the rescue station. Last Tuesday, the cage with the mother and the eight young was set up on a property with beech and fruit trees so that the dormouse could get used to nature, said Gallenberger. The hatches of the cage would be open so that the animals could jump in and out. In addition, helpers hung nesting boxes on trees in which the animals can hibernate. The animals were already doing gymnastics around the cage. They would still be fed. When and how long they went into hibernation depends, among other things, on the temperatures and their fat reserves.
Gallenberger is happy that the entire litter made it through. When they were found, the young animals were naked and still had their eyes closed. At the time, it remained unclear how the mother dormouse got into the bathroom cupboard in which she built a nest out of washcloths. In total, Sabine Gallenberger and her helpers from the Wild Animal Orphan Protection Agency have taken in more than 100 dormouse this summer. The animals are raised on bottle-fed food, fed fruit and given medical care if necessary.