David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
_____________________________________________________________ Mammals 27 – 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 (f)
WESTERN
HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN
HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
WESTERN
HEDGEHOG Erinaceus europaeus (f)
- Two
rescued female
Western Hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus are shown in the first
and final photographs. The female in the first picture was released in
April 2011 into an urban back garden with a single male and another female
(later inadvertently poisoned when she drank sodium hydroxide that had
been poured down a neighbour’s drain) following a period in the care of
the animal rescue charity Wildlife
Aid: http://www.wildlifeaid.org.uk/index.php.
A third (very large, noisy and possibly slightly mad) female was released
a couple of months later. This species had sadly disappeared from the
release area during the mid-1990s and there has been a general worrying decline
of this charismatic mammal in recent years (essentially they are being
squeezed out of existence by selfish human behaviour that is depriving
them of food, nest sites, hibernation sites and access – and often
poisoning them too). This decline is most evident in the significant
reduction of recorded road-deaths. The male wandered off several days
after being released and he did not reappear. The unexpected appearance of
three delightful babies (two girls and a boy) means that the female in the
top photograph must have been impregnated before she was released (this
was later confirmed), having been kept in a mixed sex pen until this
strategy was altered following too many fights! To give an idea of scale,
the diameter of the flowerpot drip-tray that they feed from (on minced
beef) is 13.5 cm. Two of these babies are shown above. All were
paint-marked on their flanks, an easy and harmless process. They became
rapidly self-sufficient, fed well and grew fast. The baby female with the
yellow marking was the tamest and boldest of the three and she readily
accepted food but the little male despite having appeared almost daily
remained rather camera-shy, eschewing the deliberately provided
supplementary food and hoovering fat-ball crumbs left behind by the birds
instead. The other baby female was elusive and must have moved on. Their
behaviour is very individual! Sadly, after several years of breeding
success during which at least 40 young were produced the species was unable
to re-establish itself long-term for various reasons, and in particular because
of the synchronous parasitism of the adult males by lungworm – that may
well have been spread by untreated domestic dogs. As a conservative approach
was taken to the original staggered re-introduction of adults (in order to
broaden a potentially small gene-pool) it may prove possible to give these
animals a better chance of re-establishment by releasing larger number of
adults simultaneously at some time in the future.
·
David’s
short 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.
-> Mammals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50
-> Species Index, Common
Names
-> Species Index,
Scientific Names
-> Site Index
-> Home