There was an article in the Daily Mail yesterday, where an "expert" stated that people should stop feeding hedgehogs at this time of year and through the winter as it stops them hibernating. Apparently the constant supply of food prevents them realising that it is time to hibernate and puts them at risk of dying in the cold weather, or being attacked by predators. They did say that the fact that there were hedgehogs active in January may have been down to the mild weather though !
Our local hedgehog rescue is up in arms about this, worried that people will read it and stop feeding the hogs just at a time where they are "winding down" for the winter.
I think that The Daily Mail are way out of order. In our experience hedgehogs have been known to be active until November/December due to the mild weather. I feel that we must use common sense and perhaps tail off feeding as the nights get colder in a month or two's time - what do you think? Surely nature will predict when they are ready to hibernate not the Daily Mail.
Totally agree GD2. We should all follow the advice of rescue centres who, after all, have the knowledge and experience. Hedgehogs have enough man made hazards to contend with, without bad advice coming from a so called expert. It is body temperature which kick starts hibernation and if a hog is underweight it has less chance of surviving. A mild winter will delay or shorten hibernation but the more food options there are the better. Let's all carry on doing what we're doing!
Hopefully most people will disregard this, my worry is that some will take it as gospel. As long as they read past the headline and saw the bit about "It could have been the mild winter"
I note that the BHPS has made an official complaint to the Daily Mail about this article. On their website there is also a long statement from Dr Dawn Scott , which ends
"The title of the Daily Mail article is misleading of what I said in my talk. I do not support the statement of not feeding hedgehogs in Autumn."
Absolute fools indeed! Our local hedgehog rescue centre is also furious, following this logic autumn juveniles have absolutely 0 chance of survival being too underweight to hibernate successfully.
I am chuffed to say it looks like our sighting of a hedgehog in our garden a couple of weeks or so ago was not a one-off as 'he' has been seen again along with several left 'calling cards'. As a result I've ordered a hedgehog house, a feeding bowl and some feed!
So I'd like to pick the brains of Mark and the rest of you enthusiastic hedgehog 'carers' as to where best to site Horrace's new house!
Below is panoramic image of our garden. I have added the two black lines to show where the corners of the garden are. These are 90 degree corners.
The following image (circled) is where I believe he has been staying up till now in a log pile against the fence that I made at the beginning of the year.
Would it make sense to site it here or maybe nearer the shed / summer house area. Just for ref the left hand side of the garden faces south, the back fence (where the log pile is) faces east and the right hand fence faces north.
Posts
There was an article in the Daily Mail yesterday, where an "expert" stated that people should stop feeding hedgehogs at this time of year and through the winter as it stops them hibernating. Apparently the constant supply of food prevents them realising that it is time to hibernate and puts them at risk of dying in the cold weather, or being attacked by predators. They did say that the fact that there were hedgehogs active in January may have been down to the mild weather though !
Our local hedgehog rescue is up in arms about this, worried that people will read it and stop feeding the hogs just at a time where they are "winding down" for the winter.
I think that The Daily Mail are way out of order. In our experience hedgehogs have been known to be active until November/December due to the mild weather. I feel that we must use common sense and perhaps tail off feeding as the nights get colder in a month or two's time - what do you think? Surely nature will predict when they are ready to hibernate not the Daily Mail.
Totally agree GD2. We should all follow the advice of rescue centres who, after all, have the knowledge and experience. Hedgehogs have enough man made hazards to contend with, without bad advice coming from a so called expert. It is body temperature which kick starts hibernation and if a hog is underweight it has less chance of surviving. A mild winter will delay or shorten hibernation but the more food options there are the better. Let's all carry on doing what we're doing!
Hopefully most people will disregard this, my worry is that some will take it as gospel. As long as they read past the headline and saw the bit about "It could have been the mild winter"
I note that the BHPS has made an official complaint to the Daily Mail about this article. On their website there is also a long statement from Dr Dawn Scott , which ends
"The title of the Daily Mail article is misleading of what I said in my talk. I do not support the statement of not feeding hedgehogs in Autumn."
Dr Dawn Scott
University of Brighton
Let's see what the Mail do !
Does anyone with more than 2 brain cells believe anything they read in the Hitler loving daily hate mail?
Absolute fools indeed! Our local hedgehog rescue centre is also furious, following this logic autumn juveniles have absolutely 0 chance of survival being too underweight to hibernate successfully.
Last edited: 11 September 2017 18:10:13
I am chuffed to say it looks like our sighting of a hedgehog in our garden a couple of weeks or so ago was not a one-off as 'he' has been seen again along with several left 'calling cards'. As a result I've ordered a hedgehog house, a feeding bowl and some feed!
So I'd like to pick the brains of Mark and the rest of you enthusiastic hedgehog 'carers' as to where best to site Horrace's new house!
Below is panoramic image of our garden. I have added the two black lines to show where the corners of the garden are. These are 90 degree corners.
The following image (circled) is where I believe he has been staying up till now in a log pile against the fence that I made at the beginning of the year.
Would it make sense to site it here or maybe nearer the shed / summer house area. Just for ref the left hand side of the garden faces south, the back fence (where the log pile is) faces east and the right hand fence faces north.
Any feedback would be most appreciated.
Many thanks
Last edited: 16 September 2017 19:59:23
I've added the pic of the Shed / Summerhouse area also.
PS the rear fence, where the log pile is, faces west, not east as per my first post. Doh.
Last edited: 16 September 2017 20:15:54
Just a little bump for this thread in the hope someone can give me some location guidance for the hedgehog house as per my post(s) above?
Thanks folks.