Granddad’s Camera
Hedgehog, as it appears in the game

No.014 · Mammals · Uncommon

Hedgehog

Erinaceus europaeus

A spiny, snuffling garden visitor that hunts slugs and beetles at night and sleeps through winter. Its numbers have crashed.

When to look

April to October, mostly at dusk and night.

Time of day

Best time
Dusk and night from April to October; hibernates roughly November–March.
Where in the game
Millbrook (garden, park, churchyard, urban and farmland)
Size
Head and body about 22–28 cm
Weight
Roughly 0.45–1.5 kg, heaviest in autumn
Lifespan
Usually 2–3 years in the wild; up to 7 recorded
Population
Estimates vary: about 522,000 in Britain (Mammal Society, 2018) to 879,000 (PTES); there is no robust way to count them
Status
Vulnerable (Britain, Mammal Society Red List 2020)

Diet

Beetles, caterpillars, earthworms, slugs and other invertebrates; not milk and bread.

Habitat

Gardens, hedges, parkland, farmland edge; needs wide, connected patches of cover.

Breeding

Breeds April–September, peaking May–June; litters of up to 7 (usually 3–5) hoglets are born in a leaf nest; hoglets stay with their mother for up to 6 weeks.

Field signs

  • Black, cylindrical droppings 2–5 cm long, shiny with beetle fragments
  • Snuffling, huffing and shuffling sounds on garden paths at night
  • Round leaf nest at the bottom of a hedge or log pile

Did you know?

  • Hedgehogs have 5,000–7,000 spines. If startled they can roll into a ball with the spines out.
  • A 13 cm x 13 cm gap in a garden fence is enough to let a hedgehog through; linking gardens with hedgehog highways matters.
  • PTES estimates that around a third of the hedgehogs in Britain have been lost since 2000.

Moments worth waiting for

  • Courtship circling May to August, dusk and night
    Two hedgehogs circle each other, huffing loudly in the dusk.
  • Mother and hoglets July to September, dusk and night
    A mother hedgehog leads several pale, soft-spined hoglets across the lawn.

Photo tip

Use a red-filtered torch or low continuous light; do not use flash. Get low, set up a wildlife camera or shoot at a garden feeding station at dusk.

Be a good naturalist

Do not pick up hedgehogs or disturb a nest. A hedgehog out in daylight may be ill and need a rescue centre. Check compost heaps, strimmers and bonfire piles before use.

The law

Protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 (listed on Schedule 6, which bans certain methods of killing or taking) and the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act 1996; a priority species under the UK post-2010 Biodiversity Framework.

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