Hi Penny
That’s interesting, a new female turning up this late. Maybe her regular feeder has stopped feeding?
I used to think that the chin rubbing thing was the males, but here it usually looks like a whole body rubbing including the chin. Initially, it seemed to be something they did when the females were about and they were, perhaps, testosterone fuelled, but I have seen Digger doing something similar, but only a couple of times. With her it does look more like just a chin rub.
I would have thought the hoglets would be able to follow Mum’s scent without that, but maybe not. Also hogs don’t have territories, as such, so why would they need to scent mark(?) although maybe they do a bit so the males can find the females, etc. What we need is someone who has studied hedgehog anatomy to find out whether there are actually scent glands in the chin area. I have read a suggestion that self anointing might involve some sort of pheromone to ‘advertise’ their presence, so maybe there is some connection. There is just so much about hogs which we don’t really have the answers to.
Digger was still here last night, but no hoglets (old or young). She was behaving differently to normal so I wonder whether she is about to hibernate.
