Where’s our hedgehog?
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6 months ago we started to transform our little garden in East London in order to encourage wildlife. In that short space of time our efforts have been paying off incredibly, with a dramatic increase, in both number and variety of birds, field mice, foxes, insects and much to our delight… hedgehogs! We made a feeding station and bought a nesting/hibernation box, as well as an infra-red camera. We make sure that there is food and water out every evening. Since the end of August we have had regular visits, sometimes every night (at regular intervals throughout the night), eating all of the food and drinking water. We also saw on a few occasions, a hedgehog going in and out of the nesting box. The longest we’ve gone without a visit had been a week. However, sadly we are up to a week and a half now with no sightings. As we are newbies with our hedgehog friends we’re not sure if this is normal behaviour as we approach winter or if we should be concerned! The access point in the fence between us and our neighbours looks clear. Is it possible that we have one in the hibernation box already? How can we check without opening it up? Is there anything we could do? We miss their visits so much!!!
Hi tin tin
Don’t worry, it’s that time of year when the hogs disappear to hibernate. Once they hibernate it’s just a case of waiting until the Spring and hope that they return. Sadly, you can’t check – the hogs shouldn’t be disturbed when they’re hibernating. But the hog may also have gone elsewhere to hibernate.
I would keep the camera going and if you see any signs of hogs offer some food again. It’s really important for hogs to have water readily available all day, every day, including in the winter. Hogs do sometimes go in and out of hibernation a bit.
Sounds as if you’ve done a great job with your garden attracting lots of wildlife. We all miss the hogs in the winter, but hopefully all the other wildlife you’ve attracted will be some consolation. Then it’s always such a delight when the hogs begin to return in the Spring.
Good luck
Thanks so much for that Nic,
I feel much better now! We felt so sad not seeing them for so long.
I won’t touch the box just in case there is one sleeping inside.
We’ll just have to be patient now.
Your advise is greatly appreciated, many thanks!
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