Drawing Dormice - the perfect animal muse for autumn

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As we are in the middle of autumn, which animal could be a better motif than the hibernating dormouse. Wrapped in decaying and orange-brown leaves, it is the perfect embodiment of coziness.

This image was created during an online session with wildlifedrawing.co.uk last week. I am super pleased with it, one could use that as a postcard.

Sleeping dormouse in their nest, drawn in ink


Jenny Webber again did a wonderful job with easing us participants into the first lines. We started with some drawing exercises, like drawing outlines with your non-dominant hand or drawing by only looking at the subject not your paper. And all that within 30 seconds. Gosh!

The results are somewhat hilarious that I am not sure whether to post them here. At the same time I assume there is at least one fancy schmancy art gallery in this country that would put these scribbles on display.

After the session I remembered that I had drawn a dormouse before, during lockdown 2020. This time with pencils only. And no nest around it.

Dormouse sleeping, drawn by Andi Pasti

There are a few species of dormice in Europe, in UK one common one is the European edible dormouse. Yes that’s their name.
I was shocked to find out that the Romans kept them in pots and fattened them until they were ready to be eaten as a delicacy. 

The European edible dormouse is not native to the UK as it was released by no other than famous founder of the Natural History Museum in Tring, Walter Rothschild. Therefore it is a bit of a discussion point whether this species should be protected. The other UK dormouse is the hazel dormouse which is threatened too, mostly by woodland disrupted by streets and lesser habitat space.

Luckily there are organisations like the People’s Trust for Endangered Species helping with monitoring woodlands and building hibernation boxes for these lovely, cute fellas.

Stay warm,

Andi Pasti

If you want to find out more, I heartily recommend reading this article: https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/mammals/facts-about-edible-dormouse

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