Many animals burrow into dens to avoid freezing ... The final champion of hibernation in our list is the gray garden dormouse ...

Big-eyed and famously sleepy, the dormouse is a woodland and fairy tale icon, but it is a species in decline. Once widespread, the animals have now disappeared from 17 English counties.

Images can range from animal portraiture, action or behaviour ... Anton Trexler (Germany) peers up into the darkness as a dormouse pauses on a garden ladder. Dormice were frequent nocturnal ...

A dozy dormouse could not believe its luck when it ... It is thought the usually nocturnal animal may have got into the feeder overnight before being spotted dozing in the hanging feeder on ...

Each 20g dormouse had a 10-minute check-up with wildlife ... The health checks were part of conservation charity ZSL's efforts to ensure animals being released to the wild are fit and healthy ...