11/5/2004: Dormant dormice
 

http://cellar.org/2004/dormice.jpg

Sleeping dormice, described as "torpid". This is apparently the winning photograph of the BBC TV Countryfile photographic competition. The official caption says The image was taken by Steven Robinson at Wakehurst Place in southern England as part of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew's monitoring program of this endangered species in conjunction with English Nature.

IotD previously featured a dormouse here with more information on them from blase.

wow those are some ugly little critters

No wonder they are endangered. They fall off into a dead sleep like that, they're much easier to step on.

Where's the Mad Hatter in that picture, though. I don't see him. Or Alice.

The Chesire Cat's right there, of course ...

I wish my mice and rats would do that. Then I could pick them up and carry them about in my pocket with no worries of them using that as a chance to burrow under my shirt. Them things is adorable! :grinnylov

I like critters all right, but there's something a little creepy about those critters. They're just takin' a nice nap I guess.

I love how they curl their little toes up, like they're dreaming...

I wonder where "Dead as a Dormouse" comes from? The apparent lack of vital signs while they hibernate?
But they're not dead, they're mostly dead. Could they fool the cat? Would they be dead-i-cat-ed?
I'm sorry...I'll go now.... :blush:

"And mostly dead is partly alive." -- Miracle Max (speaking of witty movies)

I'm totally confused now. I always heard "dead as a doornail". What the hell?
If these critters were big enough I'd hug 'em!
Dormouse,doornail........I reckon they tell everyone in the South everything last.
xoB: the cat don't give a "rat's ass". ;)

My cat is salivating over that pic ... I'm having problems keeping her paws off the screen .. :D

It's sort of like showing a pic of 3 hot fresh Jumbo cheeseburgers to a Macca's addict ... :D

Wolf is right. No wonder they are endangered, sleeping dead-to-the-world, like that. They look like easy prey to any hunting animal, to me .. :eyebrow:

They would probably do better if they were evolutionarily adapted to sleeping, say, within an electrified domed enclosure of some kind ...

Hmmm.

No opposable thumbs. Minimal access to technology.

Yeah, I guess they're doomed to extinction.

Doornail? Why that's ridiculous. How could something that was never alive be........ok, ya got me. :notworthy
Wonder if I had a lot of people doubting their memory. I've heard both plus doorknob with doornail most common. South has nothing to do with it. Up home the dust balls under the bed were kitties, whereas around here they're bunnies. Actually, around here (as in my here) they're prevalent and agressive enough to take down a small mammal. :unsure:
With all the McDonalds/Walmart/Madison Ave homogenizing we've been subjected to, it's reassuring that these regional and local colloquilisms exist.

Never heard of dust bunnies! Must not have made it into central Pa.

And yet, they managed to stick around for many many many many many years. If anything makes them extinct it'll be human encroachment/ loss of habitat. They don't lie around on the forest floor like that when they go dormant. They're found in nests made in/under bushes, in trees or treeholes if they can find one. Also, some people build and install nest boxes to give them a habitat and if the dormice find one, they'll be in there.They really wouldn't have lasted this long if they did just drop 'dead' wherever they might have been standing.

Sez here... and here too

Never heard of dust bunnies! Must not have made it into central Pa.

I once was directed to a website that quizzed you on what words you used in some 80 different colloquialisms (e.g., what do you call the little black bug that curls up into a ball when you touch it?) and showed you a national graph of where each was prevalent. Not that I have any idea where that site is now.