Those squirrels are so cute, Penny. I have had a couple of females visit. One the returner after about 9 months absence. She was very thin when she turned up but is now looking a more normal shape again, despite being covered in who knows what. Also a couple of times another female who I think was one of the overwintered hoglets from 2016. She was very timid. Despite the appearance of mini-poos I can’t really work out who of these could have had hoglets. It may be that the other female from 2016 has been visiting late at night and using her invisibility cloak to good effect and she has hoglets.
I’m not sure there is much to we could do, Jan Marie, to intervene with hogs breeding or even if we should. I think the main problem for hog populations is lack of suitable habitat, so their population is probably, to some extent, self regulating to that. There is still so much work that needs to be done in that respect. I think it is known that they are not terribly good at breeding though. They certainly waste a great deal of time and energy during their courtships! Also, I have often wondered whether over-wintering late hoglets could become a self perpetuating thing. With the late hoglets not maturing till later and so having later hogs themselves, etc. Although there is some thought that some hogs kept in captivity may mature earlier, so maybe it balances out. I haven’t ever seen the results of the survey they were doing last year around that sort of thing.
