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As we get cosy and cuddle up in front of the fire (or the TV), the island's most vulnerable hedgehogs need just as much care and warmth to make it through the winter...
At the end of every year, Express speaks to local charities about what their Christmas wishes are for the year ahead.
Today, we spoke to Dru Burdon from the Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group.
The charity looks after about 500 hedgehogs a year, with two sanctuaries where young or sick hedgehogs are nursed back to health.
Here's what she had to say...
The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group would like to extend festive greetings to your readers.
I am not sure that this year has been much different to most of the other 32 years we have been going with regard to the hedgehogs we have looked after!
It seems to be the same old problems every year – strimmer injuries, swimming pool casualties, netting entanglements, falling into holes and trenches and road accidents, of course.
Pictured: Dru Burdon with hedgehog Purple Allan in February 2024. (Dave Ferguson)
One highlight for me was that the JEC and Geomarine put our power lines underground, which means that the risk of being without power again like we were in November 2023 is much less likely.
This year with the storms we have had recently I kept on thinking, how wonderful to have light and heat for the hedgehogs in our care. Last year we lost three little ones because of the lack of heat for three days.
The JEC were fantastic and restored our power very quickly, but it was a long time for small underweight hedgehogs to survive without a heat pad and a warm room.
Pictured: The Fern Valley family of hedgehogs. (Dru Burdon)
One memorable hedgehog story was of one of last year's youngsters who returned in the early summer having been entangled in netting on a farm near to where she had been released, she was re-released shortly afterwards.
Then several months later in early Autumn she was found again on the same farm entangled in another net, while she was in care the second time she gave birth to five babies. So this delayed her third release back into the wild.
The whole family has now been released back to the original release site where they are being fed by the householder every night.
Members and the public in general have been very generous with their donations as always and their generosity keeps us afloat financially.
The greatest challenge for me has been just to keep going, at my age, I need to pull back and do less, we have tried to recruit a voluntary care manager, with no success.
We are now trying to find funding to be able to employ someone to take over from me, so I can gradually step back.
Our volunteers have been very good and taken on more of the heavy outside work from me, but it would be a great relief to be able to hand over the responsibility of running the rescue centre to someone younger.
So following on from that, our wish for 2025 would be to find sources of funds to pay for the employment of a care manager for 2025 and into the future.
And then to find the right person or people to take on the role, maybe as trainee(s) for the first couple of years, all according to their previous experience and expertise.
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