Nest site selection by the hazel dormouse Muscardinus avellanarius: is safety more important than food?

Zoological Studies

Table 1 Significant Spearman’s correlations between indices of nestbox use by Muscardinus avellanarius and vegetation parameters

Vegetation parameters	Coefficient of Spearman’s correlation	p
Cover of hazel shrubs taller than 4 m	0.491	<0.001
Number of bird cherry trees	0.452	<0.001
Number of Norway spruce trees in canopy	-0.337	0.017
Number of Scotch pine trees in canopy	0.381	0.006
Number of young Wych elm trees	0.323	0.022
Number of young black alder trees	0.284	0.046
Number of European spindle shrubs	0.361	0.010
Density of young trees, individuals/ha	-0.346	0.014
Connectivity of nestbox tree with its surroundings^a	0.352	0.012
Shannon-Wiener index of overstory species	0.337	0.017
Number of woody plant species in understory	0.309	0.029
Number of shrub species	0.332	0.018

^aThe number of trees and shrubs which had a crown or a trunk connected to the crown of the nestbox tree.