AnimalsCroatia
Dormouse Fun facts for kids
Glis glis
The dormouse lives in beech and oak forests in Europe and eats nuts and fruit.
- Where it lives
- in beech and oak forests in Europe
- What it eats
- nuts and fruit
- How big it is
- much smaller than a cat
Fun facts about the dormouse
The ones Sammy likes best. She tells them in the game, too.
Its name comes from a word meaning to sleep, and it can sleep through winter for seven months or more!
When dormice live in attics, their thumping and squeaking at night make people think the house is haunted!
Before its winter sleep, it nearly doubles its weight and turns into a round ball of fat.
If something grabs its tail, the skin slips off like a glove so it can escape, but the tail never grows back.
In years when the trees grow very few nuts, many dormice just sleep through the summer too!
It can live about 12 years, very long for such a small animal, partly because it sleeps so much!
It can run down a tree trunk head first and leap from branch to branch.
Sleeping deep underground, its body gets almost as cold as the soil and its heart beats very slowly.
Riddle
Can a friend guess it?
Read the clues to someone, one at a time, without saying the animal. How many clues do they need? Fewer is better, just like in the game.
I live in beech and oak forests in Europe, and I only come out at night.
I can run down a tree trunk head first and leap from branch to branch.
If something grabs my tail, the skin slips off like a glove, and I escape.
When I live in an attic, my thumping and squeaking at night make people think of ghosts.
I'm the sleepiest animal in storybooks, and I sleep through winter for seven months or more.
Sammy might be thinking of a dormouse.
In Thought Zoo, Sammy picks an animal and you ask her yes-or-no questions to find it. You'll find the dormouse in the Croatia adventure.
Play the CroatiaComing to iPad, iPhone and Android on 12 January 2027
