Maternal nest
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We had a male and female hedgehog hibernate together in our hedgehog house. They both emerged looking well in March and are now showing signs of courtship in the garden. Is it likely the female will use the hog house for a maternal nest or would she look elsewhere? They currently both return to it each night. It has been fascinating capturing their behaviour on our trail cam and we are really hoping to see hoglets in the garden.
Hi morganventura
It seems unlikely that a female would use the same nest she hibernated in to give birth in, or give birth in a shared hog house. So it seems likely that she would find somewhere else.
But, it’s unusual for them to share a house to start with, although they may have separate nests within the house. But also hogs often move nests even during the course of hibernation, so it seems unusual for them still to be using the same one this long after coming out of hibernation (not least because of the potential build up of external parasites). But, some hogs seem to like to be different! Are you sure they are still spending the day in the house, rather than just going in for naps between snacks? The hogs here often go into the hog houses for naps, but spend the day elsewhere.
Have you thought of getting another hog house which she might decide to use for a birthing nest?
Fingers crossed for some hoglets this year, anyway, whether she has them in your garden or elsewhere.
Good luck – happy hog watching!
Thanks. They have definitely both been spending the day there as we have set our camera up to film the entrance and area in front. It looks like last night there was an eviction though. Both were in there from the early hours of Monday morning but when the second one returned last night it was shoved out of the house by the other one. It did make very funny film! There is currently just the one in there so I’m waiting to see what happens tonight. We have thought about getting another house but don’t really have any other place in the garden to put it and getting one could be difficult at the moment with how things are.
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