This episode, we find out how we'researching for hedgehogs and what we’redoing to make campusa better home for them.
Dan: Hello, I'm Dan Hall and I work here at Warwick. I'm a keen birdwatcher, moth enthusiast, and I'm fascinated by the wildlife here on campus. Welcome back to Autumn at Warwick. In this episode, we'll be finding out about the search for hedgehogs.
Tanya: So we're really pleased that we've got the silver award for the hedgehog friendly campus. and there's lots of hard work that's been done by lots of people on campus. That's the Estates team mostly and the Sustainability team.
In the right in the middle you've got some food, which we put in, cat biscuits, which is safe for hedgehogs to eat. And so if a hedgehog or any other animal goes in the tunnel, it walks through, it goes over the ink, you get the ink footprints then on the piece of paper.
Luckily hedgehog footprints are really easy to identify because they're really distinguishable from other mammals that you might find in tunnels. So to make campus more hedgehog friendly, the Estates team are doing a great job of trying to put more compost heaps around campus and have wildflower areas because you want to maximize the invertebrates and insects that you get because that's their main food.
Something to be aware of is that hedgehogs can breed more than once in the year. So sometimes they'll be breeding into the autumn period. So you might see actually breeding behavior with hedgehogs snuffling around each other. They look a bit like they're fighting, but actually they could be the, the mating procedure and then the females can get pregnant and you might have a little hoglets running around at this time of year. So again, it's really important to leave them alone and then not interfere with what
they're doing because if, if you do come across a hedgehog, that's that's got little hoglets or babies, they can abandon the nest. And that obviously isn't good for the little ones.
If you do happen to come across some juvenile hedgehogs, which are small and weak, especially in the daytime, it's a good thing to then ring up the hedgehog rescue because they might not be able to get through the winter and it's a really good thing for them to then be taken into to rescue, just to fatten them up for the winter and then they'll be taken back by the rescue center to where you found them.
If you do get any ideas that you've got a hedgehog around, you can look at what's called the big hedgehog map and see whether there's hedgehogs in your area. And if you do see one, if you log it on the big hedgehog map, it's really useful data then for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society to know where hedgehogs have been. It doesn't have to be on campus, it can be anywhere.
Meet Tanya
In this episode, we meet Tanya Carey from WMG. Tanya is an all-round animal lover with a particular soft spot for hedgehogs.
As a Hedgehog Champion, Tanya shares advice and tips with her neighbours on how to make the local area more hedgehog-friendly.
Tanya's Top Tips:
If you have hedgehogs in your garden, you can supplement their diets with kitten biscuits. Remember - no milk, no bread, and no fish!
When sweeping your garden, try to leave a few piles of leaves. Not only do these attract insects that hedgehogs like to eat, but they help them build nests in preparation for hibernation.
You can also click the 'Notify' button in the top right-hand corner of the Sustainability Events page to keep updated on upcoming events, including biodiversity walks and surveys.
Download theiNaturalist app to help us keep track of the wildlife we have at Warwick.
