Hedgehog release

[peaceful_fox]

I need to ask Anne when we might expect to release the hedgehogs in the garden so Kevin can get the hedgehog house made. We don’t need to have a hedgehog house, but it certainly does give the little guys a better chance and we will need to figure out where to situate it in the garden and then we will cover it with leaves and other garden debris

Comments

[chiller]

I'm perma-baffled by the fact that I haven't seen any hedgehogs around here. Every other form of wildlife abounds, but no hedgehogs! Very sad/odd.

[peaceful_fox]

They are in serious decline and if things keep up the way they are now, they could very well be extinct by 2050. That boggles my mind. I have *never* seen a hedgehog in the wild or in anyone's garden and the only ones I see are the ones we rescue. We get between 100-200 a year, so they are out there. Most of them are orphans, fall births that are too thin to hibernate, or hedgehogs that have been hurt or injured with lawnmowers or strimmers.

What's really cute is when you peek in on them when they are recovering and hibernating and they are stacked up 20-25 at a time on top of one another like cannonballs!

There are two major problems - chemicals and slug pellets are the major ones, and more people totally enclose their gardens than ever before - and have taken out grass and put in patios and decks. Urban foxes can also pose a problem, but they prefer to not eat a hedgehog if they can get other prey because a hedgehog is a lot of work for little food!

[chiller]

You used to see them a lot when I was a kid. I haven't seen a wild hedgehog - or even a dead one on a road - for more than 20 years.

[motherwell]

The last one I saw was the one we drove over enroute from Southampton to Bristol. He's probably still telling his friends about his near-death experience. Sad about their declining numbers -- you can't have real species diversity without cuteness.