More than one?
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I have an hedgehog house and a feeding station set up in my garden. Hedgehog(?)s visit it several times during the night – at almost hourly intervals. Is it likely to be the same hog or several? At least I can identify the neighbours cat but my hog(s) are all very much alike!
Hi DwarfHog
Hogs usually make several visits during the night, so it’s difficult to say how many. It could be just the one, if it isn’t going far, but if there are hourly visits all night, perhaps more likely that there are more than one.
Are you watching them mostly on video? If you watch them in real time at all (which I recommend as I think you see more that way – although obviously not all night!), if you look very carefully, you will see that they all have differences and it is possible to tell them apart as you would, for instance, a horse.
Things to look out for are facial colouring and marks, such as ‘stars’ (as in horses), marks under their eyes, under their ears, across their face, etc. My profile picture is actually a template which you can use to draw the facial markings. Not only does drawing them make you look more closely, but means you also have an image to compare the hogs with. Then there are other identifying features, such as the skirt (the area beneath the spines which is hairy) and the band between skirt and spines. These can vary in colour and the skirt sometimes has different gradations of colouring. The spines themselves can be darker or lighter or different shades of brown.
It can be very rewarding identifying hedgehogs in this way, getting to know individual hogs without interfering with their lives.
Whether you decide to try to identify the hogs, or not, I hope you continue to enjoy their visits.
Thank you, I don’t use video – although I think my camera can – but I do have pictures. Some hogs do look slightly smaller than others. I need to get the pics side by side to see if I can spot the differences. I am very new to this – my first year of hog spotting – so I am just delighted to see them! I have now mapped hedgehogs in our village – we have at least 14 houses with feeding stations/homes with up to 30 hedgehogs! Needless to say most are just off our nature reserve, by the railway or off the recreation ground. There are probably many more!
Looking through the photographs it appears that there could be Two! One is certainly much larger than the other – even taking slightly different angles into account.
Hopefully this is the start of a hedgehog complex!
I am now certain there are more than one! Two pictures taken of same place shows two quite different hogs. One huge – now known as Big boy- and one smaller – Little Miss. The only problem I seem to have now is three neighbourhood cats are visiting! They can’t get into the feeding station to reach the food but I am concerned that they are deterring Big and Little. Not much hog activity last night – although the food has gone – but plenty of feline! And, by the way, my hogs aren’t keen on Spikes moist food. Ark hedgehog food seems to be favourite.
I always consider the poo left in the feeding area and often the bowl, a little sign of appreciation. If I don’t spot the hogs at night time or they have avoided the CCTV for a day or two, its a welcome relief to see the poo around the patio and along the paths to demonstrate their presence, and its not usually too offensive!
It might not be offensive, but has anyone else noticed that it sticks like super glue once they have ground it into the patio? Maybe ‘Gorilla’ glue should change their name to hedgehog glue!
Popped out just now to see if the food I had left earlier needed topping up – they seem to have a snack at about 9.30 – to find Big Boy actually in the food station, chomping away! I don’t think he noticed me so I left him in peace. The first time I have actually ‘seen’ one of my babies apart from via the camera!
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