Hi Hoglips
I’m really glad to hear you are identifying the hogs by their natural markings. Hopefully, you will still be able to recognise some of them when they return from hibernation.
10 sounds quite a reasonable number to me, although maybe not all at the same time! I think the most I ever had here at one time was seven and some of those could have been older hoglets. (That was without the help of a camera). It may be that numbers increased, where you are, because they took a bit of time to find you. Now they know they’re on to a good thing they keep visiting!
With that number of hogs visiting, you have an ideal opportunity to observe their interactions. I was lucky that I had several years with lots of hogs visiting and was able to learn a lot about their interactions during that time. Although, I have to say, it is possible to learn more if watching them in actual time, rather than on camera, as they don’t so often disappear out of frame! All fascinating behaviour to see unrolling, right in front of me, in my own garden. Experiences I treasure and I hope you are able to observe similar things with the hogs there.
I hope they are not released hogs, because that could put the local population at risk. I have never understood why so many hogs are being released other than where they came from and Stef has recently drawn our attention to some information that the BHPS have written about this. https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BHPS-Guidance-For-relasing-Rehabilitated-Hedgehogs.pdf
Good luck with all the hogs. I hope they all continue to visit, even if they may be eating you out of house and home!
