Thanks to the dedicated care provided by our staff and volunteers, quite a lot of food donated by our social media followers, and with support from Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue, “our” first group of Hedgehogs have been released!
Two of the five hoglets, ready for release!
This group of five Hoglets were taken to Suffolk Prickles in October 2021 after being found out during the daytime locally. Weighing between 120-150g each, they were clearly from the same family so it was important to keep them together throughout the rescue and rehab process. They were treated for lungworm and given a large indoor pen to wander around in at the Hedgehog Hospital.
Enrichment is just as important to wildlife rescue as it is to captive animals, and the Hoglets were provided with hay and dried leaves so that they could learn how to build a nest and forage for food, all very valuable lessons that they would learn with mum’s help in the wild.
Once they had put on some weight and the parasite burden had been treated, they were relocated to our own Hedgehog Hotel, where they had access to an outdoor pen. This allowed them to build up confidence and fitness, as well as giving them the opportunity to forage for natural food like insects. As the weather improved, we even captured them on camera having nocturnal wanderings in their outdoor run.
As the Hoglet’s continued growing bigger and reached a healthier weight, Paula came to check on them and decided that they were ready for release, back at their home range. Suffolk Prickles have a policy of soft release for hedgehogs that were very small when they arrive at the rescue. This is so that they can get the chance to explore their habitat safely, with juveniles supported with regular food and water in order to help them establish back into the wild.
Martin, who released the Hoglets reported “Safe to say these guys are not too institutionalised. They all left without so much as a by your leave! Only one came back and that was to gather some leaves, so obviously found somewhere nice to settle.”
A Trail Cam image of the Stanton Hoglets exploring their release area.
Jennie, one of our Keepers said “It was a pleasure to see Paula collect the five juveniles on 13th April, after an 8 week stay, now big and strong enough to be released back into the wild. We hope that a few more will be ready in the next few weeks to be released back where they came from. We will then be able to help Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue take in some more and assist with getting them ready for release.
A big thank you to our supporters for items of our wish list - believe me, they can eat a lot of food!”
Paula from Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue, checking the hoglets with Keeper Jennie before they were taken for release.