Hi Jo 569
I am sorry to hear that you are not able to see the photos clearly. I can understand that must make it more difficult for you to watch the hogs and I think you are more justified, in choosing to mark the hogs, than many.
I would not want to take away anything from your enjoyment of watching the hogs rumaging around in your garden. I know, from experience, how magical it can be. But I find when I sit out with the hogs, that I do not necessarily know who they are – they are often too close to see – they are just hedgehogs – beautiful, wonderful, wild hedgehogs – but it does not take anything away from the experience.
I realise that for some people it may not be easy to recognise the hogs from their natural markings, but that should not be a reason for us not to encourage those who can, to give it a go.
It sounds to me as if you are marking the hogs sensitively, with a small discreet mark and with minimal interference. There are, however, some people who are covering hogs with excessive amounts of substance, unnecessarily large numbers of large blobs, stripes, etc. and that is the main problem. To avoid repeating myself too much, I will explore that and the question regarding assessing numbers of hedgehogs in the country, further under the heading of ‘marking hedgehogs’.
Good luck with your monster hog and all the others. Judging by the way the ones here have been carrying on, it shouldn’t be too long before there are hoglets around.
