Woodland restoration sparks enthusiasm for NDMP
Coed Pentre Ifan is an ancient woodland site in north Pembrokeshire, which was planted with conifers in the 1960s. Despite this, a significant number of broadleaved trees survived, and dormice remained present, so the National Park Authority took the opportunity to restore the site to native woodland in the late 1990s. Contributing to the National Dormouse Monitoring Programme (NDMP), a new dormouse nest box monitoring round was established in 2024 in the adjacent reserves of Pentre Ifan and Ty Canol in north Pembrokeshire. By spring 2025, there were 51 nest boxes in the NDMP round and a small number of additional ‘test’ boxes, to scope potential in other areas. Regular checks of the nest boxes across the forest were undertaken throughout 2024 and 2025. So far, no dormice or their nests have been found in Ty Canol, and only a small number of dormice and nests have been found in Pentre Ifan.
Location of nest boxes and footprint tunnels, Pentre Ifan and Ty Canol Reserves. Credit Nathan Walton.
Encouraging evidence of dormice thanks to footprint tunnels
In summer 2025, the opportunity arose to undertake a small supplementary monitoring project using footprint tunnels, following PTES guidance and undertaken by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park volunteers, experienced in survey work concerning small mammals. The distinctive wedge shape of dormouse footprints quickly enabled the volunteers to distinguish between the tracks of dormice and other small mammals. It was decided to focus this survey in the general area where there was recent evidence of dormice. The survey was initiated on 1 July, with 15 tunnels placed on site. The tunnels were checked every week and the footprint paper strips and ink pads replenished. The project was paused from 12 August until 5 September and then ran again until 23 September.
Dormouse footprints were found in the second week of monitoring and with increased regularity during the August and September checks. The nest boxes have so far provided limited evidence of dormouse activity in the reserve, with just one male dormouse (presumed to be the same individual) found in the same box from April to June 2025. The footprints found in the tunnels close to this box produced encouraging evidence of dormouse activity throughout the footprint study, suggesting that a number of animals were active in the area.
Dormice have very distinctive foot pads, aiding identification of their footprints. Prints pictured here are from a tunnel in Pentre Ifan, September 2025. This female was found in a nest box adjacent to the footprint tunnels, October 2025.
As the monitoring project proceeded, footprints were also found in tunnels further afield, perhaps suggesting a dispersal of animals from a favoured location. A few additional nest boxes were placed on site in August and in October a female dormouse was found in the box closest to a tunnel which had provided footprint evidence during the project. The additional nest boxes have been added to the monitoring round for 2026, in the hope that additional findings can be added to the record.
This intensive monitoring of a target area in the reserve has provided encouraging indications of a larger dormouse population than could be argued based on nest box monitoring alone. Future steps could include footprint monitoring in another area where there have been isolated findings of dormouse activity, or monitoring in an area of promising habitat and historical evidence of dormouse activity, but as yet no recent nest box findings, primarily in Ty Canol reserve.
Written by Marilyn Lewis
Acknowledgements
This project was commissioned and resourced by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, primarily through the involvement of Mary Chadwick, Conservation Officer, Park volunteers and dormouse licence holder, Marilyn Lewis, who has been monitoring sites in north Pembrokeshire since 2015. The project is part of Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority’s ‘Cysylltu Natur 25×25’ project, funded by the Nature Networks Programme. Nature Networks is being delivered by the Heritage Fund, on behalf of the Welsh Government.
8th April, 2026
Image credits Jago Miller, Andy Jones, Marilyn Lewis and Ian White.