Hi Repos
That’s brilliant news that you have 3 hogs there! Even better that you are getting regular visits.
Hedgehogs don’t live in families – they are basically solitary animals and the nearest to a family is a Mother with her hoglets. Father doesn’t get involved in the bringing up. But also different litters from the same Mother can have different Fathers. Apparently some litters have even been known to have more than one Father!
This early in the year, there are normally more males around than females – the males are able to go into hibernation earlier because they don’t have hoglet duties and so tend to come out of hibernation earlier as well. The pushing and shoving sounds like males!
Hedgehogs do get around quite a bit. They can travel up to 2 miles in a night. So the newer hogs may just have found you. Also I suspect that male hoglets disperse a bit and move to new areas. So there are often new hogs appearing in any given location. Likewise male hoglets may ‘disappear’ when they reach a certain age. I have found that the females tend to continue in the same area.
I hope all goes well with the hogs. Good luck and happy hog watching.
