They’re back!
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I had two prickly little friends in my garden last night. One decided to spend the day asleep in one of my hoggy houses. I’m so pleased to see them back. ( 5 days earlier than last year.)
Well I’m a bit concerned, tin tin. The hedgehog asleep in the hoggy house hasn’t been out since. There’s been food and water out for him but he hasn’t eaten any or had a drink. I hope he’s ok.
Hi zanzibar
Good news! I was just about to write and say don’t worry – that the hog may be taking it’s time about waking up properly. Really pleased to hear it’s out and eating again. It’s so lovely when they start returning from hibernation – even though, it seems, they are very good at keeping us worrying!
Thank you for the reply,nic. Yes, I was really worried about him. He’s fast asleep in his hoggy house now. I watched him go in on the CCTV.
Hi Zanzibar, So happy to hear that they’re ok!
I’m STILL WAITING!!! It’s so frustrating. Every night I’ve got one eye looking out into the garden in anticipation!!!
A few weeks ago food was eaten but nothing since. I’m sure that one is sleeping in my hoggy house as the straw has definitely moved. Can’t wait, it’s very exciting. This is the first spring that we are aware of our gorgeous prickly friends!!!My little hog, who lives in my shed only hibernated for 1 week. Eat and drank throughout, so either didn’t stock up enough body fuel beforehand or is over-active!! Whichever way, he/she is now out and about in the normal Spring routine. Agreed, good to see them back!!
Over the last couple of weeks the hogs have started to return, initially every few days and now most nights. The camera is catching them making several visits a night over a 4 or 5 hour timescale. It’s always good to see them return but it’s still cold at night so it wouldn’t surprise me if their visits continued to be sporadic until we get a good run of increased nighttime temperatures.
Hi 5sandown
They don’t seem too bothered by the cold. The ones who don’t hibernate still turn up on really cold nights i.e. -5 or sometimes more. The hogs here aren’t showing any signs of missing visits on cold nights, once they are back. Nor have they in previous years. Which is a pretty good indication that temperature alone, is not necessarily a trigger for hibernation or return from it. But when they first return it sometimes takes some of them a little while to get their metabolism ‘speeded up’ again, so they might miss a night or two.
Some of the males who are around at the moment are likely to have started hibernation before it got really cold. They always seem to hibernate earlier and return earlier than the females and there is some sense in that behaviour. It enables them to regain sufficient body weight after hibernation before the females return and they begin to use a lot of energy during courtship. But females often have hoglet rearing duties continuing well after the males have ‘disappeared’, so it’s not surprising that they tend to return from hibernation later than the males as well. (Sometimes as much as 2 months). It seems nature is very clever at arranging things.
There are, of course some exceptions, i.e. there may be some females who choose not to hibernate, or who came out of hibernation earlier for some reason and the previous year’s hoglets might also return earlier – male or female.
Interesting points about temperature Nic. It was very cold last night and I had several sightings. I attended the Vale Wildlife Hospital Hedgehog Care course last November and their approach to releasing rehabilitated hogs is to look for a weather window where the temperature is not going to drop below 5 degrees for the next few days but not to be too bothered about rain as long as the release sites had good dry cover. Clearly though you have to be more careful with hogs who have spent a period of time indoors.
Hi Liffet
Don’t worry it’s still fairly early but hopefully there will be some hogs back there soon.
Hi 5sandown
Absolutely, there are different considerations when releasing hogs from a necessary spell in captivity. In the normal course of events their wild food is also relevant and earthworms for instance will be tucked safely underground when it’s really cold. But with supplementary feeding we may be changing their behaviour to some extent. But a released hog’s behaviour, initially at least, may also be a bit different from a hog who has remained in the wild.
At last, they’re back!! Was getting really worried that they wouldn’t return.
Last night, around 9.30 I looked in the garden and there he was, having a good scratch on the pathway!! such a beautiful, welcomed sight! I recently made a bigger feeding station and he didn’t eat anything (there was only dried food inside). Today I’ve changed the position in the garden and put some wet food as well as some fresh dried food. Hopefully he’ll go and indulge tonight!
In the light of things in the world at the moment, having our gorgeous little friends back in our lives makes everything seem so much brighter!
Stay safe everyone!!! Happy hoggie watching!
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