Absent Hedhehogs
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Hi Tybury Duck
You’re right, hogs do seem to have minds of their own! If there is no way of stopping the crumbs being on the ground when the hog arrives, the only thing I can think of is to leave a bowl of hog food on the route to the bird feeder. That is if you know the route the hog tends to use! Of course there’s still no guarantee it will choose to eat that! Is there any way you can put some sort of tray or sheet of wood or the like under the bird feeder to catch the crumbs?
And to Dave, as well. Hogs do tend to change where they sleep quite often in the Summer and may even sleep ‘out of doors’ in the really hot weather. So cleaning it out is probably not a bad idea when you are absolutely certain there isn’t a hog using it. A hog spent the day in my feed box recently and left a present behind of two large ticks. It’s quite possible they may have already laid eggs before they were removed so a wash out with boiling water is what’s needed.
Good to hear some hogs are back, Dave.
How closely does our hedgehog absence match the current heatwave? I’ve been trying to find out if hedgehogs go through some kind of summer torpor or aestivation when it’s too hot and dry.
For
I found some evidence of this with other animals and with pet hedgehogs that are a different species. Nothing I found seemed to match what members here have been noting. Our observations here could provide some reasonable citizen science on the matter.Against:
Night time temperatures here are not excessive and there were even some slugs out last night that should have looked quite tempting for any hedgehog.– Mr. Rose
Dave, I’m glad that you’ve had visits from some hedgehogs again. We’re, sadly, still hedgehog-free here 🙁
Mr Rose, our visiting hedgehogs all stopped visiting at exactly the same time just over a week ago. It had already been quite hot here for some time but I think that night-time temperatures may have been quite a bit warmer this last week. An interesting idea.
Hi all. Like you, we were wondering where all our hogs had gone after a good start to Spring. We don’t have cameras and don’t usually stay up after midnight and hadn’t seen any large numbers of hogs for days. The food was not being taken in the same quantities and we wondered if the early morning birds were eating it.
Lo and behold a few nights ago we decided to stay up a bit longer and on the stroke of midnight one hog popped under the gate followed at roughly 5 minute intervals by 3 more. They were all males as they spent an hour biffing and rolling with quick drinks taken in between bouts! 2 females then arrived to distract them. Since then we have noticed them arriving mostly after 11 pm whereas in April and May they were coming out before dark. Could it be too hot?
Anyway we have now counted at least 7 visiting hogs but haven’t ascertained yet if any are still resident in our garden. (We had 2 hoglets overwinter with us and survive). We are so pleased with the numbers and crossing fingers for hoglets.Hi Marion
Glad to hear you have solved the mystery of the ‘missing’ hogs there. I have noticed that they are visiting later here too. One female in particular, must be visiting a good hour later than usual and some of the others even more. Cameras aren’t always completely reliable, either, as some hogs seem to be expert at evading them!
It may be partly the hot weather we’ve had, but also because at the moment it’s light so late. Also, hogs will be hogs and seem to like keeping us guessing!
I hope you continue to enjoy their antics and, as you say, fingers crossed for some hoglets.
i have one hog who is coming out in the day and has been the past week or so. I checked it over, and all seems well, no picks, no fleas and no fly strike of injury, good breathing and sprightly. i think its probably hungry and thirsty, so continuing to provide water and support feed in feeding stations dotted around my home. i hope perhaps she is a nursing mum…ans we will soon have hoglets.
it had been quiet until recently, certainly there is not as much food being taken as last year, i wonder if all the hogs made it through the winter.
i live in a new build village and am worried as there is still lots of development going on in the area…i wonder how many have been lost because of this.
in the men time i have posted a plea on my local village spotted trying to raise awareness and get people to put water and food down. i had a god response and and inbox message asking if i could help with a community project, delighted abut that. now i have been asked to write a small article for a local news pamphlet. i have so much to say but don’t know where to start…for now i guess the immediate concern is water, highways and food….letting people know we do have active hogs. also knowing what to do if any poorly, dehydrated ones are found.
still glad to have my hog visiting at least. XHi Amanda
The trouble with hogs is that you can’t always tell that they aren’t well unless they are very unwell. When you say it’s out during the day, do you mean amongst vegetation or right out in the open? In vegetation is probably ok, but if a hog is right out in the open (sometimes described as sunbathing) that is not normal and it needs help. I wasn’t sure from what you said whether the hog was definitely a female? If so, as you suggest it might have hoglets somewhere.
Sounds as if you are doing a really good job spreading the word. I wonder, did the developers make hog holes in fences, etc.? If not and they are still developing the area, maybe they could be persuaded to do that. Here are a couple of links which might be helpful.
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Hedgehogs-and-development-PUBLIC-ADVICE.pdf
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/planning-advice-hedgehogs/Good luck with your article and the hogs in general and hopefully some hoglets soon!
I released a number of hedgies about 6 weeks ago, and a few reappeared for a few nights , however now they have all disappeared.
We have a camera focused on food and hog house and assorted foods but still no sign.
I live surround by fields and hedgerows so I’m hoping their out having fun .
I just wish odd one would return so I know ok 😩Despite having a feeder and plenty of water, we’ve not had a visitor for over 2 weeks. We were getting two hogs visit multiple times and spending a lot of time in the garden over the evening, a mixture of foraging in our bushes and plants and eating our dried meaty cat food…. I was saddened and worried that they’d both disappeared without a trace – but reading this thread it seems a bit of a theme, so fingers crossed they’ll be back at some point.
I would just add to all the other possibilities, that you really can’t rely on cameras to catch everything that’s going on. I have recently changed my cameras around because I knew one of them wasn’t catching things I had actually seen. I now have my fairly new Bushnell aimed at the feeders, but still it sometimes misses a complete visit of certain hogs. (The old invisibility cloak again!)
On another subject. We seem to have two Amanda’s. I only noticed because you both happened to write under the same topic. Not sure how that can happen, but maybe a good idea for one of you to change your profile name slightly to avoid confusion?
I hope, Amanda, that some of the released hogs make their way back there eventually. Good luck.
Thank you all for your posts because if we are experiencing similar events with the hedgehogs suddenly becoming absent then I don’t need to worry quite so much. I am off to see my neighbors today to get them on side with getting a highway going through the gardens, they already think I am the crazy hedgehog lady so what the heck.
Many thanks for this forum and advice.
It has been a busy summer with hedgehogs feeding here after the lull when the weather was really hot, possibly six or seven every night, after I cleaned out the hog house in mid summer we have a new resident, entrance has been closed up from inside with grass and hay, so hopeful that one is settled for winter although it has not been particularly cold here in Central Scotland yet, still two smaller hoglets visiting the feeder every night.
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