A dormouse native to Central Europe, it has gray fur, large eyes and ears, and long whiskers.
It looks like a small gray squirrel, with large eyes and ears and long black whiskers.
A genetic study examined 36 young Fat Dormice from seven free-living litters in the Vienna Woods. Every litter was inferred to have more than one father. The estimated number of fathers ranged from two to four per litter, so siblings born to the same mother did not always share one father.
The researchers used 19 genetic markers to compare the young with their mothers and candidate adult males. Fat Dormouse breeding is concentrated in a short season and varies among years with conditions such as food availability. Multiple paternity in every sampled litter indicates that females mated with several males during the breeding season. Only two of 15 candidate males were assigned as fathers with high probability, accounting for five of the 36 young.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern · Global
The 2021 global IUCN assessment lists the Fat dormouse as Least Concern (LC).