The past few years have been devastating for the hedgehog population and this year has, without doubt, been the worst. The year began with unseasonably warm weather which brought some hedgehogs out of hibernation early. This then led to them having earlier litters just at a time when the weather closed in and we had an unprecedented length of time with both rain and cold weather. Hedgehogs that did not breed early tended to do the opposite and have first litters much later, again down to the weather conditions this year.
This means that if they have a second litter, which they normally would, these could be arriving as late as the end of this month. The impact on these late second litters is that they are simply unable to gain enough weight to survive hibernation. Please, if you do see any hedgehogs out in daylight, they are in trouble. Place them in a box with a towel to keep warm and ring a local carer.
We all really need to do all we can to help with the drastically declining numbers of hedgehogs in the UK.
A final plea regarding hedgehogs. With all the rain we have had many areas of gardens and paths have become overgrown. These are just the sort of areas hedgehogs will find to sleep in and just the sort of areas that are currently being cut back with strimmers.
You would not believe some of the horrendous injuries that have had to dealt with in the past year.
Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:01 pm