Dead Hedgehog

[colhonk]

Found a dead hedghog in a building the other day,laid out not moving at all, aww poor thing. Later i went past the spot and ehh? it was not there, looked around and it was outside 3 metres away, laid flat out, still looked dead. Few hours later it was in a different place spread eagled out on the floor, no sign of it breathing.
Next morning it was not there,aaww well,something has got it,,jeeeezzz,nearly stepped on it,had moved places again. Must be still alive, poor little soul.
Wonder if it would want a drink before it croaks, cuts an aerosol lid down, and with water in it I puts it infront of its nose, after a few minutes it lifted its snout and had a little lap of water.
next time I looked it had moved again so put the water infront of it`s nose again, had a few more laps of water, seemed a bit more alive.
By teatime it had a bit more water and for the first time I saw it get up and wobble along for a couple of metre`s,huuummm thinks I (no it did not hurt (much)), phoned OH to bring some of the chopped pork (supposedly) stuff she was putting in my toasty, she put it in front of it`s nose and wow, it made a little squeak and dived in,chomping away,so we left it some water and a bit of meat.
Next morning it had gone,but it left me a little deposit to remember it by.
It must have been slowly dying of dehydration as we have had no significant rain for weeks,and I have no puddles ect around my yard. I guess the worms and snails are underground in the drought so it could not get food or moisture from them.
Have put some plantpot saucers with water in, around my yard perimeter incase there are more little animals suffering.

Have a video of it chomping but it says it is too big to put on here.

 

[yellow belly]

stands to reason
less ponds and livestock troughs

We all keep our yards more tidy and less wet places
we have had rain round here so no shortage of puddles and always have slugs

but we have seen a number of hedge hogs killed on the road in the village

also since we have no livestock we have no sparrows and starlings
we used to feed stock in open troughs

keeping the place tidy has its downsides

 

[Princess Pooper]

Well done you. We have a bird bath which we have put on the floor rather than on a pedestal. We have hedgehogs about so hopefully they are taking water from it. As it is outside the kitchen window I can see when it needs topping up. A robin enjoyed a bath in it today.

We do also put some water out on the yard every now and again to help the swallows out.

 

[melted welly]

Happened in that 3 week freeze of 2010, found a barn owl frozen dead outside. Kept it for stuffing, taxidermist said too emaciated to use. Poor thing had starved.

 

[Dry Rot]

In a fit of enthusiasm, I bought some boards and fired up the chop saw, then got up an assembly line producing nesting boxes.

I now have sparrow sh!t all over the tractor and the little brown buggers are stealing the hen food. But I am noticing more little birds around than usual. Might make a few more if I can get the boards.

 

[Bald Rick]

As a point of interest, Jackals pee on hedgehogs to make them unroll as the uric acid stings their eyes. Then they (the Jackal) can eat them.

Porcupines on the other hand just make their quills go loose in the skin so when the Jackal tries to attack them so the quill(s) embeds itself in the Jackal.

 

[Jackov Altraids]

I was walking around the farm last night, feeling slightly more relaxed as the last ewe had lambed and most of the cows have calved and was thinking about how I had little bit of time to put to the less essential jobs such as tidying up.
I like things to be organised, I'm not so bothered about the purely aesthetic part of 'tidy'.
Looking around the yards, there are quite a few areas that look messy. There's a line of probably retired implements that are covered in brambles and buzzing with bees.
Theres some old stacks of timber that are crawling with insects.
Nettles now surround the silage rings that have been rolled to the side until next winter and seem home to several butterflies.
All these little wildlife havens will have to go because I now have to have a farm that looks nice according to my buyer and red tractor. It was a red tractor inspection a few years ago that focused on having no areas for stagnant water and advised drilling all the tyres used on the silage clamps to make sure they drain so as to reduce fly and insect larvae.
So there has been a collapse in the insect population and there are no longer places for hedgehogs to drink. Agricultural industrialisation was not a good time for the environment and the modern attempt to completely sterilise farms could be as bad.

 

[Bald Rick]

I was walking around the farm last night, feeling slightly more relaxed as the last ewe had lambed and most of the cows have calved and was thinking about how I had little bit of time to put to the less essential jobs such as tidying up.
I like things to be organised, I'm not so bothered about the purely aesthetic part of 'tidy'.
Looking around the yards, there are quite a few areas that look messy. There's a line of probably retired implements that are covered in brambles and buzzing with bees.
Theres some old stacks of timber that are crawling with insects.
Nettles now surround the silage rings that have been rolled to the side until next winter and seem home to several butterflies.
All these little wildlife havens will have to go because I now have to have a farm that looks nice according to my buyer and red tractor. It was a red tractor inspection a few years ago that focused on having no areas for stagnant water and advised drilling all the tyres used on the silage clamps to make sure they drain so as to reduce fly and insect larvae.
So there has been a collapse in the insect population and there are no longer places for hedgehogs to drink. Agricultural industrialisation was not a good time for the environment and the modern attempt to completely sterilise farms could be as bad.

Never mind .. our insect are thriving on all the energy drink cans our men leave lying around.

No idea what they taste of but judging by the size of some of our bumblebees (& men), must be good stuff

 

[7610 super q]

Disturbed one whilst loading out straw last week. Have put various icecream tubs of water about the yard, I presume a hedgehog will be able to reach into them and drink ?

 

[Grassman]

Farming has not been good to hedgehogs.
Tidy farms with big sealed buildings are useless to them. Slug pellets eliminate their food and will harm them if they eat them. Sprays have made big sterile areas with little food.

 

[Highland Mule]

Farming has not been good to hedgehogs.
Tidy farms with big sealed buildings are useless to them. Slug pellets eliminate their food and will harm them if they eat them. Sprays have made big sterile areas with little food.

The increase of the badger population won't be helping either, from what I understand.

 

[Grassman]

The increase of the badger population won't be helping either, from what I understand.

It certainly won't but that doesn't mean we should excuse our farming system from blame either

 

[Adam@Rumen]

We've seen a noticeable increase in hedgehogs round here since the badger cull came into force.

 

[yellow belly]

My dad lives in in a former crop field built a house there in 1990
10 acres trees 10 acres grass all surrounded with a 600 acre forestry commission oak and beech wood
10 years ago had a few hedgehogs but then found 6 dead eaten from the middle out classic badger prey
does not see any hedgehog
has plenty of deer grass snakes newts frogs and toads orchids now invading the grassed areas
often has a red kite buzzard and jackdaws

the hedgehogs have no chance if the local badgers have learnt how to get a meal as rolling up in a ball does not save them