Endangered Species
Whilst making major modifications to the garden in order to repair the excesses of the July floods, I purchased the services of a local horticulturalist to have all new fencing installed. Now this move turned out to be pretty shrewd as I’m fairly certain, “Mick the brick” and his mates wouldn’t have produced the same outcome.
Bernard was thorough and whilst waiting for panels and gates to arrive offered to help out with the clean up by raking up loads of fallen leaves, a job I hate but it has to be done. I handed him the rake and left him to it…… until……. he yelled.
Thinking he’d impaled his foot or something equally drastic I arrived to find him howling with laughter and pointing at a small pile of leaves that had run off down the garden. Now that’s not something you see every day I thought. Athletic leaves.
Closer inspection revealed four feet and a load of spines. We were housing a juvenile hedgehog who had been snoozing for the day under one of the shrubs. I’ve not seen any hogs in the garden for a long time so I promptly put out some cat food and biscuits under his shrub and made sure the bird’s water dish was topped up. (Note for others: Bread and milk is a no-no for hedgehogs and will make them ill)
Concerned he was now homeless I hied me off to the Internet to read up on the little fellow and came across a wonderful Hedgehog Forum with loads of info and some food for thought. Seems the little chaps are now on the endangered list and as such are protected species. So I tried to get a hog house. Everywhere was sold out, seems I’m a little behind with the news.
24 hours with wood, saws, nails and we had a house which went out in the garden under his bush.
Back to the reading.
Due to the weather, hedgehogs have bred late this year which means there are many underweight hoglets around who will not survive hibernation. Any that are under 600 grams need to be brought inside and fed, preferably releasing them in mild weather at a weight of at least 700 grams. If you are unsure about keeping them yourself, please contact a local wildlife carer.
It went on,
If you find any hogs out and about in daylight they are ill and need to be rescued immediately
Now I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to weigh a hedgehog. First you have to catch it and they can run blooming fast. My first few attempts resulted in me ending up flat on my face in the mud. You have to take into account the fact that it’s dark before you see them and, probably more important, they are covered in really sharp spines that makes grabbing them flaming painful. Even with thick gardening gloves on I got spiked. So I devised a trap.
I put some bricks round his food bowl and rested a cloche cover on top. When I saw him at his bowl, I shone a torch at him to stop him in his tracks, dropped the cover over him, then gingerly reached under, lifted up the ball of spines and instantly fell in love with this amazing little creature.
The weighing was promising and at 740grams I took him straight back out to his food where he carried on munching away as if nothing untoward had happened. He’s been polishing off a huge bowl of chicken cat food and biscuits with the occasional meal worm side dish every night since. I suspect he’s been helping himself to the bird seed too.
With the cold spell we’re having he’s now gone into hibernation and I shall have to wait with fingers crossed to see if he makes it through. We lost so many of them round here due to the floods but our local carers are doing a sterling job homing lots of little ones being brought in by the public. Hopefully we can restock in the spring.
Considering the animals are native to Britain and have been around for eons it’s amazing how little we know about them but just a short acquaintance has shown what delightful animals they are. They keep you entertained for hours as they bumble around just getting on with hoggie stuff. Chance meetings with competitors results in the amazing sight of the loser curling up in a ball and the victor rolling him off down the garden.
Sadly many are terribly injured by people using strimmers. A carer friend has recently had two new arrivals; one had to be put to sleep and the other has had a leg amputated, all because the manufacturers don’t put warnings on the machines and users of them don’t think. There is a petition underway to try and persuade companies to apply stickers and hopefully save a few lives. If you have a few moments to spare, please consider signing it.
JBVoices » Turning a funny shade of Green responds:
Posted: December 13th, 2007 at 4:22 pm →
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