In 1902, edible dormice were released at an English estate; by 2018 Britain had an estimated 23,000, and the government now pays £40 per hectare a year to control damage to trees, crops and nesting birds

In 1902, a small population of edible dormice was released at Tring Park, a private estate in Hertfordshire, as part of a Victorian-era fascination with exotic wildlife. More than a century later, that single introduction has grown into a national problem: by 2018, the Mammal Society estimated around 23,000 edible dormice lived in the UK, mostly in the Chiltern Hills. Today, the UK government pays land managers £40 per hectare per year under a Countryside Stewardship scheme to control these invasive rodents, which strip bark from trees, damage fruit crops and predate hole-nesting birds, according to official reports from GOV.UK. Read on to know more about it here:

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