Select a region
This winter has been a particularly tough one for Jersey’s hedgehog population, with a group dedicated to helping the prickly critters recording over 100 deaths.
In October alone, the Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group were able to release 32 hedgehogs, but recorded nearly as many deaths: 28.
The following month, the figures worsened, with 48 hogs losing their lives and just eight being released. December sadly saw 46 deaths and just eight releases.
PHPG Head Dru Burdon told Express that the group had no definitive answers on why this year had been particularly bad, but noted that many had been found emaciated and that analysis of their faecal matter often revealed internal parasites and ringworms.
She guessed that the spate of tragedies for the spiny creatures had something to do with the weather conditions, explaining that she thinks it “goes back to the summer when it was so dry… the ground is so hard, they can’t dig for their food – it’s like it being frosty so they can’t get to the earthworms under the soil.”
Pictured: The Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group said that they hoped next spring the adult hedgehogs would make healthier babies.
This starvation would then leave many of the mothers reluctant to look after their young, with the majority of the deaths coming from juvenile hedgehogs.
"It should be 66% go and 34% die, not the other way round – it’s shocking."
Looking to 2021, she said she was hoping that this was just a particularly bad batch of juveniles, and that “the adults are just tucked up safely in hibernation and will just start breeding in the spring.”
Pictured: Dru encouraged people who see adult hedgehogs at night looking healthy to simply leave some cat or dog food, or water, for them and let them be.
For anyone looking to report a hedgehog they are worried about in their area, Dru stressed to only call the group if they see the hedgehog in daylight, looking motionless, ill or lying on its side.
On the other hand, if they see large adult hedgehogs in their garden or wandering around at night, she emphasised that even in winter, this is perfectly natural behaviour and is not something that needs to be reported, instead encouraging people to leave food and bowls of water for them.
“It’s fine for big ones to be out, even at this time of year,” she said, adding that “they’re not like tortoises, they don’t disappear for six months."
She continued: “Even when they’re hibernating, they naturally wake up every seven to ten days… sometimes they come out of the nest and sometimes they don’t.
"As long it’s always dusk or dark when people see them, and they’re not lying there looking half dead, it’s fine.”
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.