It was accidentally introduced to the town of Tring in England through an escape from Lionel Walter Rothschild's private collection in 1902.[4] As a result, the British edible dormouse population, now 10,000 strong,[5] is concentrated in a 200-square-mile (520 km2) triangle between Beaconsfield, Aylesbury and Luton.[6]
Though this animal is regarded as a pest by some,[4] in the United Kingdom the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 prohibits certain methods of killing and taking it, and removing them may require a licence.[5]