Have you got hedgehogs in your garden?

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Have you got hedgehogs in your garden?
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marigold

Joined: 02 Sep 2005
Posts: 12458
Location: West Sussex

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 1:52 pm Post subject: Have you got hedgehogs in your garden?
I felt rather saddened reading this article about the decline in the hedgehog population www.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1687999,00.html. Although the survey methods seem a bit strange, it made me realise that I haven't seen a one (alive or dead) for years.... Just wondered how many downsizers have them around their gardens/holdings?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 1:54 pm Post subject:
Not in the garden, which is sad. Walled on two sides, house on a third, brick shed and short fence shared with neighbour on fourth, so no access for hedgehogs. Seen them in the alley behind the house, though. Haven't seen them on the plot either, which is most mysterious. Plenty of frogs, foxes, good bird life, but no rabbits (yaay!) or hedgehogs (booo!).

ele

Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Posts: 814
Location: Derby

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:00 pm Post subject:
We do see them from time to time walking across the road and in the garden, unfortunately one died in my accidentally upturned recycling bin last year (the irony), I was sad for days

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:00 pm Post subject:
No Like Cab we don't really have any way for them to get into the garden.

Penny Outskirts

Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 23385
Location: Planet, not on the....

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:07 pm Post subject:
We have them on the farm, although not many - we hear them sniffling around sometimes. I don't remember seeing many road kill hedgehogs either - used to be quite a common thing

Loopy Lou

Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 263
Location: Northamptonshire

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:09 pm Post subject:
We get quite a few round here - feel very lucky.

Blue Sky

Joined: 30 Jan 2005
Posts: 7658
Location: France

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:14 pm Post subject:
We got 'em in the garden here but not seen any for a while, in hybernation for winter for now.

Goxhill

Joined: 27 Mar 2005
Posts: 245
Location: Lincolnshire

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:32 pm Post subject:

We have, too, for all we're on a 90s built estate. I saw 4 in the garden at the same time one night last summer! I put out 'Spike's Dinner' for them, which seems to help.

Tried to overwinter a tiny one in November - he weighed about 250g which is too small to survive hibernation. Had him in the greenhouse, but sadly he died. Wish I'd taken him in to someone, but he seemed fine. It really upset me.

Miss BunnyKiller

Joined: 06 May 2005
Posts: 52
Location: Brixham, Devon

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:52 pm Post subject:
we have had them in our garden here. i think they stay under the garden shed.

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 2:54 pm Post subject:
They keep their towels nice and clean under what must be difficult circumstances then.

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 3:24 pm Post subject:
Occasionally see the odd one here, but not as many as I'd expect or like, given that it's off-road and relatively safe for them otherwise. I also see fewer killed on the roads round here now than before, but sadly, I don't think that's because their road-crossing skills have improved.

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 4:11 pm Post subject:

We had them regularly in the garden - in spite of there being no apparant access for them. They fit in though tiny spaces when they are small and then cannot get out again once they have grown past a certain size, I suppose.

We had a sow who had annual litters for two years but then something awful happened to her - we don't know what - and we found her brood of hoglets wandering around in the day time. We rescued them. One died overnight and to our horror we subsequently found another one of their siblings drowned in our frog pond. Hedgehogs, even babies, can swim, but they cannot climb too well and it was unable to escape.

This haunted us for days afterwards.

Once the hoglets reached their optimum weight for the winter we took them to Avon Heath Country Park and released them in the special wildlife area - they had plently of nesting boxes and woodpiles there.

On the way back to the car, clutching the now-empty cat carrier, we all four of us were crying, even my husband. They are such fantastic little characters and they had become an important part of our family in the 6 weeks or so we had had them.

Haven't seen another hedgehog since in our garden. We look every year, and try and make the area as hedgehog friendly as we can.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45509
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 4:24 pm Post subject:
dont have a garden . some on the allottments .some in the woods .

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 4:33 pm Post subject:
Haven't seen any for a couple of years now, dead or alive and they used to be quite common.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 06 6:00 pm Post subject:

Like everyone else, we used to have them, but haven't seen any since we first got the dogs, who very entertainingly met one in the garden (prickled noses on puppies - entirely indifferent hedgehog. I suppose if you wear a coat of prickles, you can afford to amuse yourself taunting puppies!) May not be coincidence!

If you have no access for hedgehogs, perhaps you could rescure one. In Essex (of all places) their used to be ads in the paper for secure homes for disabled hedgehogs from a local hedgehog sanctuary. Do wonders for your slug control. I plan to have lots when I get my victorian walled kitchen garden, to eat all the slugs up - better company than slug pellets, and cheaper than nematodes too!

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