ABSTRACT

The fat dormouse (Glis glis) has been a commodity species in Slovenia for almost a millennium. The consumption of dormouse meat was already reported around the year 1240 and the trapping methods, as described in the 17th century, have hardly changed since then. Dormice provided rural people with proteins, fat and fur. As a result of the rapid socio-economical transformation of the Slovene society in the second half of the 20th century, dormouse hunting lost its original economic meaning. However, being so deeply rooted in a traditional society, it survived albeit in a modified form and has become a part of Slovene national identity. Several dormouse associations, which have emerged since 1972, aim to continue the old tradition and to preserve ethnological artifacts. In 1996 members of these associations started collecting data on the biology of the fat dormouse in order to develop sustainable hunting. In order to avoid extensive exploitation and poaching, it is a desirable goal to keep trapping under control and surveillance of the associations. This, however, requires regulations, based on scientific research on the ecology of Glis populations in Slovenia and on the impact and the effects of hunting. We discuss challenges emerging as well as bottlenecks and limitations.