Animals 5


Doing our bit Here at Jimmy’s Farm & Wildlife


Park, we have been working closely with our friends at Shepreth Wildlife Park’s Hedgehog Hospital, providing a release site for our native hedgehogs. The Shepreth Wildlife


Conservation Charity (SWCC) was founded to develop the Hedgehog Hospital and wider conservation activities, raising funds and building awareness of endangered species. The hospital, near Royston,


Hertfordshire, treats and rehabilitates orphaned and injured hedgehogs before they are released back into the wild. We use our rabbit runs to get


our favourite prickly creatures settled for a week before gently easing them back into their natural environment. We feed them up and then watch them go!


23 www.jimmysfarm.com


Hedgehogs, which are most active at night, hibernate for around fi ve months over winter from around November to April, usually choosing to nest in piles of leaves or logs called a ‘hibernaculum’.


7000 1981


The usual length of a hedgehog is 15-30cm and it weighs up to about 2kg.


A hedgehog’s spines are actually modifi ed hairs, which can be raised using powerful muscles along their back. The average hedgehog has 7000 of them – ouch!


Hedgehogs are protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981.


30 3


Considered a gardener’s best friend due to their penchant for bugs, especially slugs and beetles, the average lifespan of a hedgehog is two to three years.


IN NUMBERS


“What people do on behalf of the hedgehog is amazing. T e holes made in fences, the feeding, the hedgehog houses, the wildlife-friendly planting, the removal of hazards.”


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