Night Patrol
two hedgehogs eating peanuts
Our terrace is inspected every night by the local night watch. They go over every inch of the grounds, looking for intruders that shouldn’t be there. They’re quiet and unobtrusive, doing their work efficiently and without supervision.
They first appeared a couple of months ago, not long after the last snows melted here. We first found evidence of them in the droppings they left behind. When it comes to animal droppings, I don’t know – much, but a few minutes with google confirmed that these were likely the work of those cutest of creatures, the hedhehog.
Sure enough, it turns out that we have not one, but two (at least!) that come round for a nightly visit. Around 10pm each evening they squeeze under the garden gate, help themselves to a meal (breakfast?) of peanuts and sunflower seeds, then set off on their rounds.
(These photos are rather poor quality because they were taken without flash, so they are several-second exposures. I don’t like to use flash on animals, especially nocturnal ones.)
When we realised who it was that was visiting us at night we started putting out more nuts for them, instead of just letting them have the leftovers from the birds. After all, the birds don’t leave much! At first we left peanuts in their shells. The hedgehogs made short work of them but also left something of a mess, with bits of shell everywhere. After looking around the internet for information on how to feed hedgehogs, I found very little that talked about peanuts. So I contacted the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, to ask their advice.
Fay Vass promptly replied, telling me that unsalted peanuts are fine, but that they should be chopped or crushed, as whole or half-nuts can get stuck in the roof of their mouths. Thanks for the advice, Fay, they now have a diet of chopped nuts and sunflower seeds to start their evening.
You might think that the British Hedgehog Preservation Society is a small group, tucked away in some quiet place in the English countryside. Small they may be, but that hasn’t stopped them from taking on McDonalds over their hedgehog-unfriendly packaging, successfully persuading them to redesign it so hedgehogs can’t get stuck in it. Good for them!
So now, thanks to the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, our local night patrol is well and safely fed. They eat for 15-20 minutes, then they’re off on their rounds, keeping our terrace slug-free.
And the best thing of all is that they work for peanuts!
...still eating...
...and off on patrol
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Tags: Hedgehog
May 24th, 2010 at 13:45
I was lucky enough to get close to a hedgehog 2 years ago, before that I’ve only seen a quick flask of one once before. They are becoming more common here now and I hope to see one soon again since they are very interesting as well as beautiful animals.
May 24th, 2010 at 14:35
they are cute, aren’t they! They’ve started coming a little later now that the weather has warmed up, so I guess they’re finding more food out and about, which is good news. It’s been a long, cold spring here, and the bugs and slugs just weren’t there for them.