All its dreams turned into a nightmare for this hungry dormouse, after it got stuck in a bird feeder. The chunky creature found itself in a very challenging situation, after eating too much sunflower seeds and getting too chubby to get out!
The unfortunate dormouse got stuck in the bird feeder for nearly two and a half hours, until Cheryl Hewins found it. The 72-year-old woman went in her backyard on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England, to check the bird feeder and she couldn’t believed her eyes when spotted the helpless rodent inside.
“I was surprised to find the thing sitting in my birdfeeder,” Cheryl said. “He must have been there all night and eaten so much he couldn’t get out. However, I’m glad he enjoyed his meal.”
We’ve seen dormice curled up in some peculiar places but we’ve never seen this! The sender of the photo found this #dormouse had eaten so much it was too fat to get out of the feeder! After a careful release it went on its way. Safe to say it will survive hibernation!
📸C Hewins pic.twitter.com/dYM35mJGDS— People’s Trust for Endangered Species (@PTES) November 18, 2020
Apparently, the greedy dormouse gobbled seeds until it eventually fell asleep. Its tiny stomach expanded and then it found itself trapped inside the bird feeder. After found it, Cheryl has tried to set it free, but not before reaching out Hampshire Dormouse Group, a local rescue group.
“Cheryl was a bit panicked about finding it in her feeder,” Catherine Holder from the rescue group said. “It’s nice it was a dormouse because so many times people think they’ve seen a dormouse and it’s not. I also just thought it was hilarious. He just sat there like an absolute chunk.”
In the end, the unlucky dormouse was released. But I’m not so sure he learned his lesson, though. “I got back to her very quickly and confirmed it was a dormouse and told her to take it to the nearest vegetation cover in the garden and try and let him out as soon as possible,” Catherine said. “They hibernate from November to April and they have to properly chunk up.”
