A HIBERNATING dormouse had a lucky escape recently after he ended up inside a ride-on lawnmower.

Retired soldier Gary Gilbert was mowing his lawn in Winkleigh in the spring sunshine, creating a narrow wheelbarrow path through a largely-disused paddock.

Mr Gilbert stopped mowing to clear up the grass that had gathered on the mower's framework. Among the cut grass, he saw what he thought was a piece of litter on the ground.

Mr Gilbert said: 'When I had a closer look I saw a little dormouse roll in a ball. There was a slight movement and he didn't look injured. I called my wife Fiona to look at him then I scooped him up in some grass cuttings, put him in a small flower pot and took it to my neighbour.

'He must have been whisked through the blades and up the chute.

'Perhaps he survived because he was so still and very relaxed. He probably weighs less than a two pence piece. We've called him Dodger because he had a very lucky escape.'

Mr Gilbert's neighbour Maggie Watson has undergone special training allowing her to handle dormice. She has dormice boxes in the grounds of her home, and was able to identify Dodger as a hazel dormouse.

She said: 'He is in my dining room in a cage with some chopped apple, sunflower seeds and some blossom.

'They are nocturnal animals so I wouldn't expect to see much movement. Maybe I will hear him rustling around in the evenings.'

Dormice, considered an endangered species, are protected by law. Though they nest in trees in the summer months, they hibernate at ground level where the temperature is more even.

Following advice from an ecology expert, Dodger will be released back into the wild once he has put on some weight and the weather is warmer.