Volunteer and student, Hannah, tells us about the fascinating life of a cute and spikey member of our British wildlife. Read about how they have adapted to survive our cold winters and how we can all give them a helping hand and make them feel welcome in our gardens and green spaces.
Hedgehogs can be found in most areas of the UK but as their name suggests, they thrive best in places where there is a maze of hedges connected together or a wide variety of thick undergrowth. This is usually in people's back gardens or in nature reserves, like Castle Eden Dene. The population of hedgehogs has fallen by 97% since the 1950’s and since hedgehogs can roam up to 2km per night, it’s important for local people to help the creatures who visit their garden, especially coming up to hibernation season as the Dene provides a safe space for them to live in. This can be done in many ways, small and large.
Hedgehogs have a diet mainly based on eating bugs, like slugs and caterpillars, so have plenty to choose from the plethora of bugs in the Dene each summer but makes finding food extremely hard for them as the weather gets colder. This is the main reason that hedgehogs (and other creatures) hibernate. When their food stores begin to dwindle in October/November time, they start to build little shelters (called a hibernacula) to keep themselves warm with old, dry leaves, grass and other insulating materials and this can be up to 50cm thick. Once they have completed their house, they slow down their metabolism to almost a standstill, and are completely immobile. Their body temperature is reduced from 35 degrees to 10 degrees and they only take a breath once every few minutes. The insulation from the home they made is the only thing preventing them from freezing, so it’s vital that it’s well made and undisturbed. The energy they do use during this time comes from the fat stores that they built up during the summer.
You can tell if there’s a hedgehog visiting your garden by looking at their tracks. They have five toes, but only four can be seen in the tracks which look like little hands. However an easier and perhaps more accurate way of seeing if you have a resident hedgehog is looking for their droppings. These are usually dark in colour and often resemble a slug. Hedgehogs are animals of routine, using the same routes to move around, especially when they are raising their young, so look out for signs in the same places. If you live along the edge of the Dene (one of the places where hedgehogs thrive) then you can almost guarantee you have a little visitor each night, so look out for the signs.
Once you have determined whether you have a visiting hedgehog, to help these little creatures, one of the main things that can be done is to allow them access between gardens. This can be done by leaving small ‘hedgehog holes’ under fences that they can wriggle through on their night time adventures. In the summer, leaving a shallow dish of water in your garden can help prevent them becoming dehydrated, however all hedgehogs are lactose intolerant so they don’t like milk.
One of the main reasons the population of hedgehogs has decreased in the UK is the introduction of slug pellets. These are understandably used by keen gardeners, who want to protect their plants, however they are highly toxic to hedgehogs. Luckily there is an alternative. Beer traps are small pots, placed in the ground, so the entrance is level with the ground. Then a small amount of cheap beer is placed in them, which attracts the slugs in, and kills them. Not only will this help with the slug problem, but leaves a tasty snack for birds and hedgehogs passing by without harming them. Even though this takes slightly more upkeep, to keep the pots topped up with beer and as my grandma discovered, to come up with ingenious ideas to prevent the crows from throwing her pots around the garden, it has proved a very effective method and has even encouraged a hedgehog to stop for a snack on it’s journey to and from the Dene each night.
Some of the bigger ways that you can help hedgehogs, that take a little bit more work than the others, leave food out for them and to help them build a shelter. Hedgehogs are carnivores so if you want to feed them, meat based cat or dog food is best, or if you can find specific hedgehog food, are all safe for them. Bead, while not dangerous to hedgehogs, has no nutritional value, so is completely worthless to them. Since hedgehogs are solitary creatures, it can be dangerous if several hedgehogs visit the same feeding station and pass diseases between each other so feeding stations need to be cleaned each day to avoid this. Leaving meat based food out can also attract other, larger animals, especially for those lucky enough to have a house backing onto the dene. For those with little time or who want to keep pests out of their garden, it’s better to avoid feeding hedgehogs and pick another way of helping them survive their hibernation period. Larger creatures, like cats and foxes can be prevented by creating contraptions that only allow smaller animals to reach the food, unfortunately, as me and my Mam discovered, this won’t prevent small animals, like rats from visiting and making a home nearby, so this could be a task for people with larger outdoor spaces. There is no evidence that hedgehogs rely on one source of food, so don’t feel pressure to put food out every night.
For people with young children, building a hedgehog could be a way to help hedgehogs and keep the children entertained and intrigued by the outdoors. With adult supervision, timber, nails and a hammer, a box with a small tunnel coming out can be made, just big enough for a hedgehog to fit through. Remember to make the top removable so you can check if there are any hedgehogs taking residence, these types of houses can also be bought from garden centres. Then pick a shady place in the garden for your hedgehog houses and fill it with dry leaves and grass. Cover with polythene sheeting to prevent water entering and pack with soil and leaves, leaving the entrance clear of debris. Hedgehogs also like to hibernate in compost heaps and log piles, so you could already be creating a space for them without knowing. Just remember to be extra careful when disturbing these areas in the winter in case there is a spiky animal at the bottom, trying to sleep. This website offers dimensions and a step by step guide on how to build a hibernacula: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-hedgehog-home
Some hedgehogs in the UK don’t hibernate during the full winter months, so it’s not unusual to spot one moving around in the undergrowth of the Dene or your garden during the winter. They can be woken up if the temperature drops too low (below freezing) as a survival technique. If the hedgehog isn’t wobbling, trapped, obviously injured, lethargic, a hoglet or showing signs of flies, then it will probably be okay to just keep leaving food out for it (if you are worried about this going off, then cat biscuits can be used). Unnecessarily picking up hedgehogs can cause them stress and if they are young, this can be fatal, so only try to aid a hedgehog if you are sure that it needs help. However if it is showing signs of those things, then it could need some assistance, especially if it’s out during the day. It is important that if you see a hedgehog roaming the dene, especially if it is almost dusk you don’t touch it, unless it is showing obvious signs of distress. To help the hedgehog in need, pick it up using an old towel or gardening gloves and put it in a high sided cardboard or plastic box with a hot water bottle covered in a towel and give it room to move off, if it becomes too hot. Put the box in a quiet room, away from any pets and try not to disturb it unnecessarily. Place a small amount of food and water in the box but do not force it to eat. If it’s a hoglet, check areas nearby for other members of the litter that may also be in need. After the hedgehog is more relaxed, ring a local hedgehog shelter for further advice (for Peterlee +447817 256777).
As it gets closer to bonfire night, people will start to build bonfires. Be aware that to a hedgehog, a big pile of sticks looks like a good home, so construct the bonfire as close to the time you will set it off as possible and try to check a few hours before setting it off for signs of life. Remember to be respectful of the small visitors who visit your garden and drive carefully at night, especially around the edges of the Dene so smaller creatures can cross the road safely too.