Mystery to solve
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I have been closely monitoring the HH activity in my suburban garden since 1st April. I have always had between TWO and FOUR visitors each night, not always the same ones although a male (Harry) and female (Harriet) have been entirely consistent. I think Harriet may be pregnant. Three nights ago there were FIVE in attendance for the first time including Harry, Harriet, a male (Two Patch) and two others that I did not recognise. For the last two nights there has only been a rather bemused and lost looking Harry. He has never been lonesome before. I wonder. has Harriet been kidnapped by the latest arrivals, or could she have run off to join the HH Circus?
Hi 3Huts
The thing to remember is that hogs have quite large ranges – the males ranges larger than the females – so they could be spending some time in other parts of their ranges. But if the female(s) was/were pregnant she may be having hoglets in a different part of her range and not want to move too far away from her young ones. Even any other males may have been attracted by the presence of a female so be spending more time in other parts of their ranges.
I always found that the females were more reliable visitors (except for when they were having hoglets, when they might go missing for a couple of weeks but then return) with the males a bit less reliable (although there was usually a dominant male who visited more regularly) Some hogs always tend to disappear and people always get worried about it, but many of them eventually return.
Hopefully one day one or other of the hogs there will return, maybe with some hoglets in tow. But in the meantime, don’t worry about Harry, he won’t mind. They probably all went their separate ways when they left your garden anyway. Hedgehogs are naturally solitary animals and, in effect, we are encouraging them to change their behaviour by attracting them to feeding stations.
Good luck. Hope for some good news soon.
Thank you for that Nic. I am learning more about these delightful creatures all the time and I will keep this post updated. It is now seven days since we saw anyone other than Harry who still appears briefly each night before retreating into one of the available huts at about 4am.
Fifteen nights since we last saw Harriet. The large male (Harry) has been in attendance every night, sometimes with other males who attend briefly and retreat after scuffles. Last night we had a small female, very hungry and not in the least bit nervous. I managed to put some food down by hand no more than an inch or two from her snout and she did not flinch. This was in daylight, about 8.15pm. Later she toddled off into Hut2 which is the hut occupied by Harry. We expected to see her dash back out, but no, she did not. Later we saw her and Harry at the feeding station and they seemed to be getting on fine together.
Hi 3Huts
It’s good to hear that Harry is still visiting and that he has found a lady friend! Normally a male and female are ok eating together, although some males will pester a female so that she doesn’t get much time to eat. But some seem to be ‘gentleman’ hogs and allow the female to eat before making advances! So maybe Harry has learned to be patient and that she may be more impressed if she has had enough to eat!
Well, it is now seven days since we recorded any HH other than Harry. Then, at 1.30pm today he had us all running around like headless chickens when purely by chance we saw him leaving Hut2 in broad daylight and heavy rain. This has never been observed previously but after ten nail-biting anxious minutes he reappeared and sauntered back into the Hut. This leaves me wondering, do HH’s habitually leave the nest in daylight if they need to Poo? Certainly when we periodically clean the huts out we see little evidence of faeces.
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