Basic Facts
The British hedgehog is found across mainland Great Britain in gardens, woodlands and scrub, but numbers are declining rapidly.
Hedgehog Facts
Basic facts about hedgehogs, how they live, and how we can help protect them.
What They Look Like
Adults have around 6000 spines made of keratin, coarse fur, long snouts, tiny ears and around 40 teeth.
Hoglets
Litters can be up to seven hoglets after five to six weeks gestation. Disturbing nests can put babies at risk.
Food And Habitat
They mostly eat insects and worms and can travel miles nightly, so wildlife corridors between gardens are vital.
More about hedgehogs
How do they live?
Hedgehogs generally live on their own. Their homes are usually burrows and nests they build themselves, made from leaves, branches and other vegetation. They are nocturnal and so, during the day, are tucked away under leaves, stones or logs; coming out to feed at night.
Hedgehogs can travel up to a couple of miles every night, through several gardens, so if you can, leave a hole the size of a CD in your fence or gate to let them travel in and out. Ideally, different holes into different gardens will enable them to travel along a wildlife corridor.
What do they eat?
At night they root through hedges and other undergrowth in search of the small creatures that make up their diet. Whilst rooting, they make snorting noises like a hog — thus how they got their name. They have poor eyesight and rely on smell and hearing to help them find food.
In the wild hedgehogs mainly eat insects and worms, and can supplement this with snails, small amphibians, small rodents, snakes, foliage, eggs, fruit, seeds and fungi.
Please do not use slug pellets in any form, as eating poisoned slugs will also poison the hedgehog. A better plan is to create a wildlife-friendly garden, including good access points into your garden, which will encourage hedgehogs in, and they will help you with your slug problem. A hedgehog is the gardener's friend!
Dangers to hedgehogs
Predators that are capable of killing hedgehogs include badgers, foxes, polecats, pine martens, weasels and birds of prey such as hawks and owls. Badgers are the main predators to adult hedgehogs; the rest tend to target hoglets.
Additionally, dogs regularly attack hedgehogs (hedgehog rescues get a lot of dog-related injuries). Cats are curious, but not a threat except to tiny hoglets.
Hedgehogs love to swim
Hedgehogs love to swim and drink water from ponds, so having a pond in your garden is a lovely thing. However, please make sure that you have good access from your water feature, such as a ramp, bricks or wildlife edging, as hedgehogs (and other creatures) will die from exhaustion if they cannot get out again.
Did You Know?
Global warming is changing hedgehog behaviour, especially in the South, where hibernation is becoming less predictable. Healthy hedgehogs seen out at night should usually be left in the wild with access to food and water.
Global warming has a direct impact on our wildlife, including the behaviour of our wild hedgehogs. Hogs do not look at a manmade calendar and think 'It’s winter so we must hibernate!' Ingrained in their DNA is the ability to sense the weather and act accordingly: far more accurate than the human weather forecaster.
Here in the deep south the behaviour change in our hogs has become more noticeable. Those who support feed their nocturnal visitors notice, in chilly spells, the visits for food are not so regular and not so many visitors are seen. For hogs to hibernate in the South it has to sense the right conditions - it is not a forgone conclusion anymore that southern hogs will hibernate.
Humans have a nurturing instinct which sometimes is challenged when they see a 'small' hog out at night skipping to their food across a frosty lawn. We ask you bear in mind that you are watching a native wild animal whose breed has survived harder winters than we now experience. The best way for you to care for them is provide food.
To bring a healthy hedgehog, who is displaying normal nocturnal behaviour, into captivity causes them a huge amount of stress and this in turn can activate health issues which they would otherwise be able to control in the wild.
If you are concerned about a smaller uninjured hog out at night then please contact us by phone and we can look at the individual hog’s situation and health together and make the right decision for that spikey bundle.
Overwintering is rapidly becoming a thing of the past because our winters in the South are not as harsh, nor as long lasting, as they are in the northern part of the country.
If you are worried about a small but uninjured hog out at night, call us so we can assess that specific hedgehog's condition with you and advise the best next step.
