Daily and seasonal dynamics of activity of Edible Dormouse on its underground cavern exits in Dinarides

Navadni polh v polšini preživi celo zimo in dele dneva v poletnih mesecih. Dosedanje raziskave aktivnosti polha so potekale le na gnezdilnicah in časovna raba polšin v naravnem okolju še ni preučena. Tako smo v obdobju od maja do novembra 2021 na območju Rakitne spremljali 10 polšin navadnega polha. V tem letu je obrod navadne bukve, ki je najpomembnejši prehranski vir polha, praktično v celoti izostal. S pomočjo avtomatskih kamer smo spremljali vhode v polšine, avtomatski termometri pa so beležili temperaturo v notranjosti polšine in zunaj nje. Zbrani podatki so bili analizirani. Predmet opazovanja so bili: vrste živali, število osebkov in vedenje. V primeru evidentiranega polha je bila določena še smer gibanja (vstop oz. izhod iz polšine). Zbranih je bilo 2.860 posnetkov živali ob vhodih v polšine, od tega 252 posnetkov navadnega polha. Ugotovljeno je bilo, da je le-ta večinoma aktiven od sončnega zahoda do vzhoda, in bolj na območjih z večjo količino dostopne hrane. Aktivnost se je preko mesecev povečevala, z največ zabeleženimi dogodki v mesecu avgustu. Temperatura v notranjosti polšine je bila bolj stalna kot zunanja temperatura. Ob vhodih v polšine so bile zaznane tudi številne druge živalske vrste, zlasti tiste, ki plenijo polha. Naše ugotovitve so veljavne za leto brez obroda bukve in se verjetno zelo razlikujejo od leta z obrodom.The edible dormouse spends in the underground cavern the whole winter and parts of the day in the summer months. However, research of edible dormouse activity have only been carried out on nesting sites, which means that the timeline of the underground cavern exits use has yet to be explored. In the Rakitna area 10 edible dormouse underground cavern exits were monitored in the period from May to November 2021. This year, the beech tree did not bear any mast which is the most important food source for the dormouse. Automatic cameras were used to monitor the activity around the underground cavern exits and automatic thermometers to monitor the temperature inside and outside the underground caverns. The collected data were analysed. The type of animal, the number of individuals and their behaviour were observed. In the case of a dormouse event the direction of its movement was determined. 2,860 underground cavern exit events were collected, of which 252 captured an edible dormouse. It has been found out that the edible dormouse is mainly active at night and in areas with a greater amount of available food. Over the months, the night-time activity of the edible dormouse increased, with the highest activity in August. The temperature inside the caverns is more constant than the outside temperature. In the vicinity of the underground cavern exits were also detected other species of fauna, many were predators of edible dormouse. The findings are valid for a year without beech fruiting and are likely to differ from a year with fruiting