Visit of Norwegian colleagues

From the Bilateral Fund of the Programme “Environment, Ecosystems and Climate Change” from Norway grants we held the first meeting with Norwegian colleagues. Jeroen van der Kooij and Arild Husby visited the Czech Republic and together we toured the current and historical localities of birche mouse. During the field trip we discussed research methods, environment of birche mouse and possible future cooperation.

birche mouse (Sicista betulina) - tiny mouse with the black stripe and very long tail

Birch mouse (Sicista betulina) is a rare small jumping rodent. In the Czech Republic and Norway it occurs only in isolated areas. In the Czech republic it occupy mountain environment and only some. These are three areas: 1) in northern Moravia Jeseníky and Rychlebské hory, 2) along the border with Slovakia Beskydy and Javorníky and 3) in the border mountain of southern Bohemia - Novohradske hory and Šumava. During the meeting we visited all three areas.

The mountain spruce forest and area above the forest border in Hrubý Jeseník still provide habitat for birch mouse.

Old records of birch mouse also come from lower position, such as this mixed forest in Nízký Jeseník.

In the Beskydy mountains we visited nature reserve Kněhyně-Čertův mlýn, where a number of older, but also newer records of birch mouse come from.

Birch mouse in a owl pellet also took us to Bumbálka, where are mowed meadows and also old spruce-beech forest in nature reserve Salajka.

In Novohradske mountains there are known localities with current occurence of birch mouse in forest-free wetlands and upland peat bogs.

Similarly, the birch mouse occurs in moors and peat bogs of the Vltava basin in Šumava.