Hi Penny
I am very disappointed that poor old Bandit has been attacked, again, by the excessive markers. He is the very large hog who visits. I would estimate that more than half of the area of his spines are covered in dark marks, as well as part of the side of his face including around his eye. The marks are too regular to have happened by mistake. These marks aren’t even in the same positions as the old ones. I have no idea what the substance is, but it comes off on other hogs. One of the other males turned up with a dark face, when actually he has a pale one. As you said, with Simba, Bandit is one of the hedgehogs which is easily identified, even in black and white on the night cams. I wonder if it is just coincidence that Bandit has become more aggressive since this ridiculous marking started.
What are these people thinking. No-one who truly loves hedgehogs could do such a thing to them.
Apart from anything else, it is counter-productive. Whoever has done this can have no idea who the individual hedgehogs are if they put marks in different places when the hedgehog reappears. If anyone wanted to mark a hedgehog for identification all that is needed is a mark so small that someone else wouldn’t be sure whether it was an artificial mark or just dirt from somewhere.
This excessive marking has got to stop. Hedgehogs deserve better.
