RETURN OF THE HOGLETS

Good news , the four not so little Hoglets have just been weighed and are now ready for phase II of their release back into the wild. The cage they have called home for the past 10 days will be removed tonight. The garden has been secured and all the external hedgehog highway tunnels have been temporarily blocked up , so our little friends will now be free to roam the whole garden for the next couple on nights.

In two days time the hedgehog tunnels will be opened and our little hedgehogs will finally be free to come and go as they like. Then it all starts again with the last two siblings who are now ready to start the same journey as their brothers and sisters. With luck a few might just hang around and make the garden their home !

During the heatwave that engulfed the UK this summer we came across a large female hedgehog in the garden that was clearly struggling with heatstroke . We took her to a local wildlife rescue centre to recover and then discovered she was pregnant ! Shortly after seven little hoglets appeared.

Unfortunately It all proved too much for mum and she died a few weeks ago , along with one of the hoglets. The good news is the other six are all doing well , and today we have soft released the first four into an enclosure in our garden !

The other two hoglets are doing well and will follow their brother and sisters in a couple of weeks. The first four will be kept in the enclosure for another two weeks , partly to get them used to being back in the wild and also they are still a little small to be released. They all weigh between 600 and 650g , so they are nearly there and as they pass 700g they will be set free . We have an additional couple of hedgehog houses ready and we hope that a couple might stay in the local area.

These little chaps are the second set of hoglets this year so hopefully the future of our local hedgehogs is looking bright.