Just as a reminder that there is more wildlife in the garden than the birds, we were interested to see a hedgehog make its way across the grass one evening.

The following day we saw the juvenile pictured on the right. It seemed a little odd that such a small hedgehog should be out and about, particularly in broad daylight. That night we were twice awakened by loud fox barking and, in the morning we found two young hedgehogs rolled up on the grass. Whether the foxes had been playing football with them we don't know, but the hedgehog below, which was only about 10cm in diameter, seems to have been given a bloody nose by something.

One of the two youngsters wandered off during the day but the other remained comatose. The following day, there were three of them on the grass, the dormant one from the previous day having died.

After taking advice from the experts, we brought in the two survivors, plus one more which turned up shortly afterwards, and kept them in a warm box with water and catfood until the local Hedgehog Rescue man arrived that evening. Sadly, by then one more had died, but he thought the remaining two stood a reasonable chance of survival.

Apparently, it is not uncommon for Hedgehogs to abandon their young just a bit too soon and we now know that any hedgehogs around during the day are almost certainly in trouble.

TJH.
August 2004