Query unusual behaviour
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After over 2 years occupying the same very comfortable hut and having a very predictable routine and timings. ‘Harry’ (a bully boy male about the size of a shoebox) disappeared. I took the opportunity to replace his hut with another identical which I loaded with a similar amount of fresh dried leaves (ex apple trees) and hay. Late last night Harry reappeared and stomped around the garden as though he was high on something naughty. He ignored his old home and two other unoccupied huts. He also ate very little food from the feeding station and disappeared after 20 minutes. Is this normal behaviour? Should I be worried?
Hi 3Huts
It’s hard to be sure from short descriptions on the forum, but it does sound a bit like male hog behaviour when there are females around – especially the more dominant males – when they will often tear round the garden seemingly ignoring everything. I always think of it as ‘being on patrol’. But they do tend to look a bit ‘hyper-active’ in those situations.
Once the hogs have come out of hibernation they won’t necessarily go back into that box again (or in your case its replacement). If Harry has stayed that long in the same box before, that might have been unusual. Hogs will sometimes even change nests during hibernation time, not least to avoid build up of parasites.
Normally the male hogs would come out of hibernation earlier than the females (having gone into hibernaton earlier). That gives them the chance to put on a bit of condition before they got involved in wasting a lot of energy circling females and biffing males (as well as tearing around searching for other hogs). But there may be some females around already. Some ‘rescues’ tend to release over-wintered, previously underweight, hoglets once hogs start emerging from hibernation and the weather is nice. But there could also be some females who chose not to hibernate. If non-hibernating hogs have access to sufficient food, even the youngsters will put on weight over winter.
These are amongst the ways we humans could be inadvertently impacting on hog behaviour. i.e. females normally hibernate later than the males and then emerge from hibernation later. Any female hoglets from the last year which may emerge earlier don’t normally seem to be particularly interesting to the males until later. Although if they have put on weight and size over winter, that might be a different situation.
But it’s possible that Harry has become more dominant (or wants to be) and is patrolling his range more energetically. Alternatively he was already the dominant one and wants to keep it that way!
Having said all that, if you are, at any time, worried about a hog you can ring the number (bottom left of this page re. sick or injured hogs). They will be able to give you the number of your nearest hog carers, but you will also be able to explain the behaviour more fully than is possible on the forum.
Good luck and happy hog watching!
Nic. Thank you for your very comprehensive reply. We have not seen Harry for a few days now but there is plenty available clean accommodation available if He wants it and we will keep the night camera working in hope and expectation. Regards,
Can someone please help me?
I have had a hog visit for weeks in April in my front garden, I made a hole In the back garden gate, then he started coming down the side of the house so I moved the feeding station into the back garden.When I had a look at him he was absolutely jumping with fleas so I took matters into my own hands and bathed him with a gentle baby soap. Rinsed him well with lukewarm water and popped him back outside but he still had fleas.
Inorder for him to recover I was going to give him regular water therapy sessions so I bricked the hole in the gate which is the only access point, to temporarily use my garden as a ‘hog hospital’ for him.
I gave him lots of meaty food, water, a sturdy wooden hedgehog house, all he needed to recover while I was planning on giving him regular treatments for parasites. But that same night he climbed over the gate, (it’s 2.5ft metal sturdy mesh, easy to climb) and so I found out in the morning where he was nowhere to be seen in my enclosed garden.
He was nowhere to be seen for 8 days, until he turned up to my front garden for one night to eat where I had put food out ( I have only ever seen one hedgehog on the camera and in every shot it’s looked the same and I know it’s him because he has the same head shape + a row of claws missing on one of his feet from day 1)
I haven’t seen him since may 1st and he’s stopped visiting my garden, I live near a nature reserve.
What’s going on? Could the climbing of the fence somehow disturbed him?
Thanks 🙂
Roccoryan2008
To start with it is not a good idea to block a wild hedgehog into a garden and the hedgehog, once it had escaped may have decided it was not a good place to be, bearing in mind the treatment it had received. It is always best to leave any treatment of hedgehogs to experienced carers/rehabilitators which you do not say you are.
Having said that, hedgehogs do tend to ‘disappear’ from certain locations from time to time. Males, in particular, have large ranges and he may be concentrating on another part of his range – especially if there is good habitat available in the area. It’s possible he may eventually return if he can easily get into and out of your garden. Alternatively, if there is one hedgehog in an area there are likely to be others as well, so one of those might also visit. Although, bear in mind that by trying to stop one hedgehog getting out, you may have been stopping other hedgehogs from getting in.
One of the main objects of Hedgehog Street is to try to improve access to gardens for the hedgehogs by making hedgehog holes – so that they have more available accessible habitat in which to forage. So as many hedgehog holes as possible are good. Ideally we would also all be making our gardens as hedgehog friendly as possible so that the hedgehogs can rely on finding wild food for themselves rather than relying on any artificial food we might offer them.
Let us know if he returns.
Hi nic,
Thank you for giving me some advice etc, I do also live near a huge country park? Hedgerows, brambles, long grass etc, but have only had one hog visit for a few weeks but I haven’t seen him in two months, I have cameras set up and a constant feeding station, yet no activity
Our resident Hedgehog has been staying all day in the hut provided, but is coming out quite regularly at night – even now when it has been so cold – to feed in the station next to the hut and to get water, also provided close by. Is this usual behaviour in December?
I’m no expert but I believe hedgehogs can hibernate at different times, with no exact science as to what triggers it. Some might not even hibernate if there is a reliable source of food available.
See my post ‘Hedgehog In The Snow’ under Hedgehog Signs and Sightings. I still have a hog(s?) feeding every night.
I’m convinced our recent topsy-turvy weather patterns are having an adverse effect on nocturnal/hibernating creatures.last year, I saw a hog in the garden one night in the middle of January. He seemed very healthy and lively (and tipped the scales at nearly 800g). I started putting food out again and the trailcam recorded visits (from more than one hog) for rest of the year right up till around November. So maybe some do not hibernate at all. I have not seen any since the small hoglet rescued in daylight a couple of weeks ago (posted under signs and sightings section).
Hi ElizR
Whilst is may not be the norm, it does seem to happen quite often. There are lots of reports on the Forum, over several different years, of hogs choosing not to hibernate. Climate change may be contributing, but also I suspect easy availability of food – we humans may be subtly changing hogs behaviour in more ways than one in our efforts to help them. It’s mostly hoglets which are mentioned with more occasionally adults. My garden, ironcally, seems to have been busier recently than it was a few months ago!
Of course, it may also be that some hogs have always chosen not to hibernate and that we have only become more aware of it as more of us have night cameras and so see them if they are out and about all winter.
The hog might still hibernate, but I would continue to leave food and water available in case he/she changes his/her mind. Also, hogs are known to sometimes emerge from hibernation for brief periods and even change nests before continuing their hibernation again.
Good luck. I hope the hog does well, whatever he/she decides to do next.
Hi Nic,
As always a comprehensive reply from you – thank you. But yes, I (and perhaps others?) never gave full consideration before to a continuing supply of nutrient rich food being readily available. A tough one – trying to help the hedgehogs against interfering with nature?
Just out of interest to others re: appearance of winter hedgehogs. I am taking part in the ‘Living With Mammals’ survey https://livingwithmammals.ptes.org/
Run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species you can record sightings of mammals (not just hogs) in your garden/vicinity. Easy to do; you record the positives – sight/tracks/poo but also the negatives i.e. nothing seen.
This is helping build a nationwide record of where/when mammals appear. Will be interesting when the data is collated to see the changing pattern of hedgehog behaviour.
Happy Hogmass everybody! 🙂
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