Hibernation Behaviour
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We’re hedgehog carers working with Warwickshire Hedgehog Rescue. We’ve had 4 hogs overwinter with us in hutches and it’s been fascinating watching them. We’re going on holiday soon so have had to wake our hogs up so that we can release them before we go. We brought the hutches into our conservatory with heat pads and after a few days they started showing signs of life. They had all lost about 20% of their body weight in two months of hibernation and woke up ravenous. Within two weeks they had put on all the weight they had lost plus some and were showing all the signs of being very fed up in the hutches where they’d been for 4-5 months. Bowls were turned over, newspaper shredded and poo everywhere. This week we’ve been able to arrange soft releases for them in areas where they came from. Although we’ve had wild and windy weather there are lots of places where they can be safe and dry, often in the gardens of the many people who support hogs with houses, feeding stations, food and water. It’s been great to see the hogs going from being very poorly, injured or underweight to being healthy and ready to be released. The volunteer rescue centres around the country are always grateful for people to help out as foster carers so I would encourage anyone who has an interest in these lovely and endangered animals to step forward and help out. The investment of time and money brings great rewards.
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