Where have the hedgehogs gone?
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We’ve had hedgehogs visiting our garden every night. They reappeared from hibernation towards the end of March but over the past week or so they’ve suddenly stopped coming – no food eaten, no poo on the patio, nothing on the trail camera. Where are they?
Hi SarahEB
What tends to happen is that the males return first from hibernation. When they first return they feed up to put on some of the weight they’ve lost during hibernation. Males have larger ranges than females, so it isn’t surprising as time goes on that they visit the areas of their range, which might not be quite so good as far as the food is concerned, but there may be females around – that sort of thing. It may be that you are on the edge of some ranges. But also once the females have returned the males spend a lot of time on courtship circling, which means there’s less time for them to be visiting feeding areas. You don’t say, how many hogs were visiting, but if there were only a few, it’s more likely that one or more of these scenarios could be the cause.
Also if any of the hogs were last year’s hoglets, it’s quite likely that the young males will gradually move on to new ranges. But if they are moving away from the area you are in, others may eventually move into that area.
Then it may be that other people have now realised that there are hogs around again and have started feeding. Someone may have been doing some DIY in their garden and routes, may have been blocked and hogs may have to find a new route, etc.
Lots of possibilities. But, don’t give up. I would keep putting a bit of food out and definitely water all day every day. Those same hogs, or others may appear.
Thank you Nic. That’s really interesting. I didn’t even know there were hedgehogs visiting our garden until I heard a very strange noise when I looked out of the window one night last June. Since then we’ve watched their nightly visits right up until November 26th. They reappeared exactly four months later and I assumed we would continue to have their company. As you say, their access routes could have been blocked up with everyone doing more in their gardens during lockdown.
I haven’t seen more than three hedgehogs at any one time in the garden. I’m not sure how many were visiting but I was beginning to recognise three individuals from their markings and there were at least another two that I couldn’t individually identify by anything distinctive. I’ll continue to put out food and water and see what happens. They certainly seem to drink a lot when they do visit.
We noticed a hedgehog in our garden by accident a few weeks ago when we were outside looking at the Capella star. We started to look outside regularly after this and it was just an odd night here and there that we did not see it. It used to be seen around 9.30/10.00 pm and used to be in our garden until around 2.00 am. My Partner built it a house and we have been leaving cat food and water out for it regularly since the siting and in just over a week we saw it 6 nights out of 9 but now we haven’t seen it for 4 nights and were starting to worry. I miss our hedgehog.
Hi Bisali
That’s lovely that you had a hog, but sorry to hear it’s disappeared. We all get attached to the hogs and miss them when they aren’t around, so understand how you feel. Hopefully it will only be temporary and either that one or maybe even some others will appear again.
Good luck.
Hi SarahEB
That’s really good news. So pleased for you. They do seem to like to keep us guessing sometimes!
I’m not getting as many hogs either. But I spoke to the hog hospital last night -and she said all her wild hogs that have slept in her hog houses have left. As my hog houses are empty too.
She said at this time of year, they have gone off having fun exploring the world and chasing females and completely normal.
So don’t worry, as arnie says ‘We’ll be back’.
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