A NATURE charity is on the hunt for people who are nutty about wildlife.

Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust is appealing for ‘nutters’ to take part in a Great Nut Hunt at its Lower Woods nature reserve, near Inglestone Common.

The trust needs people to help scour the woodland floor for gnawed hazel nuts left by dormice to find out the population of dormice locally.

Spokeswoman Emma Bradshaw said: “Lower Woods is one of the largest ancient woodlands in the south-west of England, situated near Wickwar, and is an incredible place for wildlife with lots of places for dormice to hide.

“Because of its sheer size, to discover the distribution of dormice within Lower Woods we need the help of the general public to find the characteristically gnawed hazel nuts that dormice drop in the autumn.”

She added: “By the end of the event we hope to have a much more complete idea of the distribution and population of dormice in the woods.

“Participants need to be up for scrambling through the woods in autumn weather, off paths and getting down on their knees to search the woodland floor for hazel nuts for 20 minutes before walking back.

“No previous experience is necessary and children, especially aged seven and above, are very good at finding hazel nuts on the ground.”

The hunt takes place on Saturday, November 2 and Sunday, November 3 (11am-4pm) with two sessions each day starting at 11am and 2pm. Each session will have different length nut hunts of short, medium or longer hunts.

Book a place by emailing info@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk