Hedgehogs are back!!! Soo excited!

[Gwenz1991]

Hello!

I first saw hedgehogs in my garden end of last summer and was so excited and joined this sight. then after going on holiday in late September I never saw them again… but now they’re back!! I’m soo happy!

I have a hedgehog house set up in the back of the garden and have a wildlife camera set up on a sensor and at the end of April I caught my first footage so am now putting out food (in the hog house) and water outside each night. They don’t seem to drink any wayter though. Any tips? The food disappears each night.

There are at least 2 hedgehogs (one slightly larger than the other) and they often seem to be circling each other. Is this normal behaviour?

I love it watching my videos each day, however I do need to learn more about them. I have started planting more plants that they might like and have started a small log plie in the back of the garden too. Is there anythign else I could be doing?

Thanks! 😀

[Nic]

Hi Gwenz1991

Really pleased to hear there are hogs back.

Re. the water. It’s best to leave some out 24 hours a day, especially if there is a long dry spell. If a hog was dehydrated it might come out during the day and some water being available could save it’s life. I use large plant saucers, probably about 8 inches across or more. The wider they are, the less likely the water will be tipped out. Hogs quite often just walk through the water and in smaller containers may tip it up. But not so deep that a hoglet could get trapped in it. In my garden the birds share the water containers for bathing in. Just have to keep topping them up! Many hogs are fussy about the water they will drink and prefer rain water. If your water is treated (i.e. you have a water softener) make sure you only give them the water that is suitable for human consumption as well. But they may also be put off if you are in an area where the water is more heavily chlorinated (or whatever they use these days). So if you have access to rain water that might be preferred. Some say don’t use tap water, but I think if that’s all you have that is better than nothing. If it’s left outside in a wide shallow container hopefully some of the chlorine will evaporate.

Re. the circling. It sounds to me as if you may have a male and a female there. The ‘courtship’ behaviour consists of the female sort of backing away from the male and huffing. He then begins to circle her and she turns round and round so that she is pretty much facing towards his head. This can go on for hours and can be quite noisy, as the female huffs as she turns. Often this doesn’t come to anything and one or other of them will get fed up and just decide to walk away. But, hopefully, if you do have a male and female there, eventually they might produce some hoglets.

It’s possible what you are describing is something different and so it isn’t possible to be sure from a short description.

There is loads you can do to make your garden more hog friendly. Some tips from Hedgehog Street:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/helpful-garden-features/
One thing that I discovered was beetle banks. I had been lifting some turf and left it in a pile for a few days before finding it a final location. I was amazed at how many beetles had moved in. So now any turf gets turned into mini beetle banks.

The perceived wisdom is that a garden has to be untidy to be wildlife friendly, but if you are the sort of person who likes a tidy garden, there is still much you can do. For instance a log pile can be a neat log pile and if necessary contained in a box open at one side i.e. a sort of bug hotel. I have an old tea chest full of old bits of wood and corrugated cardboard, etc. and it is full of bugs and things. There was even a bumble bee nest in there one year. You can also get those gabion baskets and fill them up with whatever you like, which can create homes for all sorts of minibeasts, but still be quite tidy at the same time.

Hogs like some fairly short grass to forage on. From observation, I have found that if the grass gets too long the hogs started to forage less on it. It seems there is an optimum height – not too short, but not too long. But with some longer grass and preferably wild flowers at the margins. But again you can keep the wild flower and long grass area tidy, even potentially having paving around it, if you wished. As long as it’s there and provides home and food for insects, etc. that is the important thing.

It’s great that you are enjoying watching the video. Hope you have many more happy hours hog watching.
Good luck.

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