Rewilding Hedgehogs

Every year many hedgehogs are rescued and nurtured back to life in rescue centres across the country. After they are back to full health, they need somewhere new and safe to live. If you have a suitable garden or area of land you can apply to help the rescue centres by releasing a hedgehog back out into the wild. You need a hedgehog house and cat food to keep them going for a few days until they have found thier paws again. You also need a garden with shrubbery, no poison and no slug pellets, with access to other gardens, i.e. a hedge rather than a fence, or if you have a fence it must have a hole though which it can go to and fro. Think of all those gravel boards at the bottom of fences which effectively segregate gardens of one another and stop hedgehogs, small mammals and amphibians from moving about to find food and shelter. Our gardens are key to the provision of homes for wildlife and there are many ways you can make yours wildlife friendly.

It is a lovely thing to do and very satisfying. We went to the South Essex Wildlife Hospital after filling in their form online which assessed the suitability where we live. So now, after a trip down the A12 and almost to the M25….. we have 4 little hogs under hedges in their wee houses with a dish of cat food. At least one emerged the evening and we found him snuffling around!  These are not the best photos, they are tricky to capture, but they are still gorgeous. Good luck guys, let’s hope you thrive and we can rebuild the population of hedgehogs in the UK.

South Essex Wildlife Hospital – dedicated to putting life back into the wild
The photo above of the hedgehog must be credited to  the SE Wildlife Hospital. I wanted an image that shows how poorly some are when they arrive at hospital and one that was a lot better than mine!