Hedgehogs, how to find them?

[Cazzie]

Have you tried contacting your local wildlife rescue - mebbes they can shed some light onto numbers in your area?? - and maybe why you haven't seen any.

[johog]

one of the main reasons that hedgehogs are declining is because of lack of natural food.also because of this they resort to eating slugs and snails, this then causes lungworm, usually kills them unless it can be treated early on.
you can make hog feeding stations and put cat food down (not fish flavoured) and usually you're rewarded with a visit or two. i'm hoping to help increase my local hog population, i've got a few out on soft release and some that can't be returned to the wild
i've e-mailed my brother to see if he can send me the link

[Digit]

For twenty years I travelled all over this area as a service engineer and no one I mentioned it to had seen a Hog, not even the vets!.
They just aren't here!
The most common small mammal,apart from the little seen mice and Shrews, are the Moles. It's Moleopolis round here!

Roy.

[johog]

aww, its such a shame theres none local, the're one of those creatures that you just fall in love with.
i remember seeing them all the time when i was younger, but even caring for them, i seem to be getting more un-releasables

[super cabbage]

have you tried one with chips

[Digit]

Yeah, but the spines get stuck in your teeth!

Roy.

[Blackdogjnr]

Yep.

Badgers are definitely one of the biggest hog-eaters out there.

I am becoming slightly obsessed with hedgehogs, like cazzie I feel very very lucky to have residents in the garden.

Don't forget to check my other thread about the mammal society survey gang!

-nudge-

[johog]

i'm doing the hedgehog survey and told my brother he has to do it too, as he goes on nightly walks
there been a definate decline in my area, i've been getting phone calls left,right and centre! and the ones that are coming to me are extremely poorly and underweight

[BarbaraEmma]

Digit I wonder what part of Wales you live in.Around here we have quite a lot of hedgehogs,I'm lucky enough to have a resident one that shares my garden and my neighbours.We have no local badger population so perhaps that makes a difference.We do live close to farmed land but it's mostly open fields used for sheep. Hedgehogs rely on getting access to gardens and ours for one is not easily accessible,but they manage to get in through next door thank goodness.

[Digit]

I live just north of Cardigan. Till I retired I was a service engineer and I have travelled thousands of miles around the area and in that time, and the time since, I haven't even seen a road kill or a single live one.
I've tried to find a population map without success I'm afraid, I know that Foxes predate them and we certainly have no shortage of those here, whether that's a coincidence or not I don't know.

Roy.