A dream has come true - over 20 years since I started to study hedgehogs, I have been commissioned me to write about them, about their behaviour and ecology, about the impact that we have on them and they have on us. This blog will chart the progress of the book, but will also be a place where I start to share some of the stories I receive from around the world.
You see I don't want to just stick to the scientific journals when describing hedgehog behaviour, I want stories from people who have seen the behaviour themselves. I want to know what folklore is attached to the animal. I want to know why there is such a global passion for such an unlikely animal.
So if you want to know more about hedgehogs, revisit this site, read what others contribute - and tell everyone you know that there is a strange man in Oxford, England, trying to find out everything there is to know about this amazing animal.
6 comments:
Hi, about a month ago , in the torrential rain, I found a small hedgehog in my garden shed, trying to get inside a carrier bag for warmth. It didn't curl up when I picked it up and photographed it. I fed it and it returned the next day. By then I had prepared a box with some straw which it made itself at home in, inside the shed, as my dog likes to say hello. A few days later there were 2 the same size eating from the bowl. Within a week or so it seemed another larger hedgehog was on the scene, and the 2 have set up home in my shed, sharing the box, although I am not sure if the smaller one is eating and coming out, it is still alive and ok. If they are breeding I'm not sure which is the female - any ideas?
As a keen astronomer, I was outside one night this summer, and heard a rustling in my devon garden.Thinking it was my dog i ignored it - it was only when the rustling circled me , I realised that the dog was inside.Thinking it must be a rat or a bird i ignored it until I looked down from gazing at the stars through my telescope to see a hedghog there. I don`t know who was more startled but when I shone my bright torch it went straight into a ball, and made a hissing sound a bit like an old aggressive hamster I used to have. When I switched the light off it stayed ther for a few minutes, then kept me company the rest of my night by scuttling through the bushes. I unfortunately haven`t seen it since, but have encouraged my young daughter to make a hedghog den- she leaves worms there everynight in the hops she too will see it!!
Dr Ian Morris, devon
I have a web site that is dedicated to garden wildlife in the UK. I have seen birds, foxes, squirrels, wood mouse and hedgehogs. I have four cameras dotted around the garden that are streamed to the internet and one other roving camera. I have a bird table cam and three Infra-red hedgehog cams. One of the hedgehog cams is watching a hedgehog feeding station and the other two in a Hedgehog box / house. The box is a commercial type hedgehog box and the house is something that I knocked up from materials that I had lying around the garden.
Every evening the hedgehogs visit the feeding station, anywhere between one and three hogs at a time. There is generally a bit of rough and tumble when more than one hedgehog tries to eat at a time although there has been the odd occasion where they do put up with one another’s company.
The hedgehogs have been captured on video getting fresh, Itching and scratching, fighting, and believe it or not sharing (if not willingly) food with a fox. Considering that slugs are part of a hedgehog’s diet they tend to leave the slugs in favour of the food. The slugs can be seen eating the food alongside the hogs.
Using the IR cameras we are privileged to get a little look into the private solitary life of the hedgehog.
3 years ago we found an "autumn orphan" in the garden in late October - far too small to hibernate (weighed under 250g).
We brought it indoors and made it a home in a large cardboard box with a covered end for night quarters and an uncovered end for food and water.
The box had to live bath (small g/floor flat, inquisitve cat) which made showers and baths a logistical nightmare!
It stayed there for about 5 weeks, eating chicken in jelly dog food plus cat biscuits, sunflower hearts and scraps.
Mucking it out night and morning was like doing the same for a large puppy, yuk!
We got used to all its noises: the hiss when disturbed, an almost guinea-pig like whistle when food arrived and a strange little chuck-chuck noise when sorting its bedding out.
When it reached over 500g, we put it out in the garden in a home-made shelter - a half-moon wicker linen basket with a door cut in the lid - lined with old carpet tiles(!) and stuffed full of hay.
It eventually hibernated and came out in Spring. We kept feeding it for a few weeks, although it was always free to come and go.
Then at about 4.00a.m. on April morning there was an almighty scuffle noise outside and when we investigated, a pool of blood and no hedgehog.
We think it was taken by a badger,as there are quite a few around.
This year, we were about to throw out the linen-basket/hog house as it was taking up room in the shed. Instead, put it back where it used to be by the warm back wall and within a week or so another small, but not dangerously so, hedgehog appeared.
This time we have left food outside each night, plus a bundle of hay which it rapidly took inside. On warm evenings it has been all over the garden but since the frost, it scuttles out to eat in the early hours, then back in again.
If it hibernates successfully, when it emerges we will put its food in a badger-resistant area. We'll let you know how it all goes.
Gill Fyers
Sussex
We have had hedgehogs visit our garden now for a number of years. It appears that they are getting more adventurous (or cheeky).
I like fresh air, so our patio doors are open of an evening. There is a rustling, snuffling noises, and a hedgehog comes walking in. Oh, it's 'Spot'...so called, as he has white patches on his back spines. He's a canny hedgehog - he knows we have cats - and cats eat munchies! In payment for our kindness, he feels that he has to leave us presents all over the floor. Good job I'm not houseproud! Last year they (I say 'they' as we now have two adults) hibernated in the box that we made for them. Unfortunately one of them didn't make it through to Spring.
It appears that the family is growing though, as there are now two Autumn babies as well who come to visit every night for their cat food, munchies and water. One of those babies is now inside as we found him wandering around just outside the door the other afternoon. He's not too keen on being contained, but he is very small and lightweight.
I can relate to the problems that Gill had in the previous post! I now have a bird cage in the middle of the floor (VERY small flat)...and wondering where on earth he can go - under the gerbil tank? ...no....under the bird cages...no....erm....in the bath?- now, that's a possibility!
I am very much enjoying reading my requested Christmas present: "A Prickly Affair".
And noting that Hugh says he gives talks to WI members.
How about to Badger Group members? I realise that this is a controversial suggestion, and I have not broached the idea to the rest of the Binfield committee. (See http://www.binfieldbadgers.org.uk/)
We might need to offer more than a coffee and walnut cake to cover travelling to East Berks, too...
Any comments, please, Hugh?
HNY, Mike.
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