We'd seen a hedgehog wandering round the garden yesterday, but then later found various bits of hedgehog, clearly savaged by something. Perhaps a bird of prey? By this morning, we hadn't quite screwed up the courage to clear them up but spotted the hedgehog wandering round again, inspecting what we took to be some of the remains.
The Technomage decided to be brave and go and start collecting the pieces. I lurked some way off until he called out that one of the parts was in fact a whole, live baby hedgehog.
It seemed OK but was very young - its eyes didn't even seem to be open. And it was being bothered a lot by flies, which we've since learned is a very bad thing, as the eggs and resulting maggots can apparently kill the hoglet if left untreated.
We dithered for a short while about whether to leave it for its mother to find but then got on the phone to seek advice from a local expert found via the British Hedgehog Preservation Society list. We were advised that it was urgent to get him out of the daylight and into a shoe box with a hotwater bottle wrapped in a towel, and give him some digestive biscuit in water. This we did.
We then rang round to find somewhere that would look after him properly and PACT said that they were happy to take him. On arrival, they whisked him off to see the vet - he was already fly blown, they said. We're going to contact them in a few days to see if he's made it.
Meanwhile his siblings have been buried in Dead Bat Cairn - the pile of flint stones that is the resting place for any dead animals we find in the garden. As well as at least one bat, there's a mole, blue tits and assorted rodents such as shrews and voles.
We like to think of some future archaeologist uncovering it and deciding that they've found evidence of some hitherto undiscovered cult!
1 comment:
That first shot looks staged. How much did you pay the hog wrangler?
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