Hi Sylfest
I’m not sure even hedgehogs are clever enough to self annoint in geometric patterns – which is how the patterns sometimes are when hogs are artificially marked! Also, some of the marks appear as dark marks on night images on camera rather than pale ones.
But yes, self annointing is an interesting behaviour. Interestingly I observed a slightly similar situation to one of those described in the Wildlife Online article, when a female hog who had been at a wildlife hospital due to an injury was released. Before exiting the box, she stopped just inside the doorway of the box and self annointed, almost as if she was trying to ‘cover up’ the smell of captivity before leaving.
