David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
_____________________________________________________________________________________ Mammals 26 – Western
Hedgehogs
WESTERN HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus
- Western Hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus have been having a very tough time during recent years and their population has crashed significantly. The first three images are of Hedgehogs that had been released into an urban back garden following a period in the tender loving care of the animal rescue charity Wildlife Aid: http://www.wildlifeaid.org.uk/index.php. This species had sadly disappeared from the area during the mid-1990s and there has been a disturbing population decline in recent years. The final two photographs were taken in the South of France where these animals seem to be doing rather better – but there is less habitat that has been concreted over, fewer people, fences or roads or other artificial barriers to contend with, lower concentrations of toxins and of course a more natural balance with their predators than is the case in the UK. Their plight could of course be helped by those of us altruistic enough to care for them by providing habitat, artificial houses and wintering-quarters, food, water, holes in fences and by withdrawing the use of toxic chemicals including insecticides and weed-killers from our gardens (slug-pellet toxins have a very short half-life and they are said not to be harmful to those animals that feed on them). The Hedgehogs deserve to be able to eat the slugs and worms in gardens without being poisoned! Care should also be taken when lighting bonfires that there are no Hedgehogs bedded there and shelves should be incorporated into the margins of garden ponds so that these animals cannot drown.
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Films of Western Hedgehogs may
be seen at: https://youtu.be/s0H77xaLBmQ; https://youtu.be/IRYCUQZ3sDQ; https://youtu.be/mpjzJOjnbcY; https://youtu.be/vpsUY-AihpI; https://youtu.be/yS2ER4BCvOE; https://youtu.be/PwVRcakitY0; https://youtu.be/6HemWy2m7dw; https://youtu.be/TaJD1savrjo
and https://youtu.be/NtQ9GmRqaWc.
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