......................................................................................................................................2 List of contents............................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................................4 List of tables and figures............................................................................................................6 Author’s declaration.................................................................................................................15 The hazel dormouse.................................................................................................................17 Chapter 1: General introduction......................................................................................18 Chapter 2: Take only photographs leave only footprints: Novel applications of non-invasive survey methods for small arboreal animals............................................................43 Chapter 3: Keeping track of hazel dormice: an objective method for discriminating small mammal footprints................................75 Chapter 4: Isolation and characterisation of hazel dormouse microsatellite loci......................................................................101 Chapter 5: Dormice on the edge: population genetics of hazel dormice on the southwest peninsula of England ..........................................................................................................111 Chapter 6: Multiple paternity in the hazel dormouse: not so promiscuous after all?..........................................................................168 Chapter 7: Patterns of hibernation in the hazel dormouse: Intra-specific variation and the influence of diet.....................................191 Chapter 8: General discussion........................................................................................216