Ah, hedgehogs. A seemingly common fixture in the British backyard, these snuffling spiny critters are seeing declines in their population sizes with common reasons being habitat loss and pesticide use, and are currently on the IUCN Red List for British Mammals as being vulnerable to extinction. Presently, conservation efforts are being conducted to preserve their numbers, one such effort being the Hedgehog Hospital in Shepreth run by the Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity (SWCC). The charity, founded in 2011, raised the funds to open the hospital and to date has seen 6,400 hedgehogs since opening its doors in 2012. 

Speaking to SWCC’s Chairperson Rebecca Willers, I ask her what the common reasons were for admissions into the hospital. Willers explains how throughout the year, hedgehogs are admitted with garden injuries (strimmers being a common evil) and abandoned urchins (baby hedgehogs) due to dead mothers or disturbed nests. In winter, it’s juveniles that don’t weigh enough for hibernation. Pondering the reasons for this, climate change is mentioned, in particular the recent ‘Indian summers’: spells of hot, dry weather carrying into September and October. Typically, hedgehogs breed in the spring and spend autumn fattening up in preparation for winter hibernation. However, due to the hot weather in the autumn months there has been an increase in second litters born in November, the downside being a lack of food for the new urchins in these winter months, and survival is often hard without interventions. 

“You’d finish on the 17th one, go to sleep for half an hour, then have to get up to start them all again… I think I did that for a couple nights in a row”

On the topic of interventions, Willers talks me through a typical day at the Hedgehog Hospital. With each new admission, the hedgehog is weighed and given a health check before it’s fed and given appropriate medication. This process is repeated multiple times with the same hog, and countless times throughout the day. On their busiest days, the hospital has seen upwards of 100 hedgehogs, and care often extends past opening hours into the night. Willers laughs as she recounts a particularly memorable night in the hospital’s earlier days, where she cared for 17 baby hogs in her own house. “You’d finish on the 17th one, go to sleep for half an hour, then have to get up to start them all again… I can’t believe I did that. I think I did that for a couple nights in a row.”

"On their busiest days, the hospital has seen upwards of 100 hedgehogs"

Since those earlier days, the Hedgehog Hospital has flourished and has seen many successful ventures, such as the Blue Tag programme that started in 2014 with the objective of collecting data on hedgehog behaviours and health after release back into the wild. The programme involved tagging hedgehogs with unique identifiers to allow recognition of individual hogs by the researchers and general public, who could report sightings to a dedicated website. “The data coming in was able to show that we had one hedgehog that was spotted 500+ days after we’d released it,” She tells me, “That’s truly remarkable because you’re a bit blind when you put any animal back out if you don’t have a release strategy in place to post monitor it because you’re just crossing your fingers in hope that it survives.” Excitingly, she tells me about their plans to relaunch the programme again 10 years later, this time with biodegradable tags and social media campaigns. “We only did 250 [hogs] last time, [this time] we are hoping to tag every hedgehog that comes in.” The relaunch, if anything like the previous Blue Tag programme, will help provide valuable information for improving current rehabilitation efforts.

Such programmes are aided by charity fundraising. One such fundraising event was a Ball held at King’s last November celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the hospital, which proved to be a huge success. “We said the week before, since it was so stressful, that we were never going to do this again.” She tells me, regarding the organising of the event. “So I don’t know what happened…Cos we’re doing it again.”

And indeed they are. This December, the SWCC is holding a Christmas Hedgehog Ball at King’s on the 21st. While my ears pricked up at the mention of a 4-course meal with wine, musical performances and casino, when asked what she was looking forward to at the Ball Willers is all for the vibe. “Bringing like-minded people together; having everyone that is interested in conservation and interested in hedgehogs in one space and celebrating that. What I really loved [last time] was the inspirational speakers we had there.” She tells me they’re hoping to repeat this, with the likes of the hospital’s patron Hugh Warwick and the war veteran Colin Bell DFC taking to the podium. 

"We never thought that 10 years ago this charity would still be running so successfully, with 6400 hedgehogs through the door"

Willers tells me that the money raised from the night would go towards the relaunch of the Blue Tag Release Programme but that - if a significant amount of money was raised - their hope is to build a conservation centre, accessible to everyone. “At the moment we get complaints from people that they can’t go into the hospital and see the work we have going on, due to all the biosecurity there. So we want to create an information hub where people can go and learn about the work of the hospital and also use it as an inspirational hub for talks and workshops, collaborating with conservation organisations to really highlight what’s going on with hedgehogs and what more we can do to help them.” And with ticket sales already coming in, they might just be in with a chance of turning this dream into reality.

"I know of a lot of unfortunate souls who might find comfort in the fact that lactose intolerance is a trait that they and hedgehogs share"

We conclude the interview by discussing other endeavours pursued by the SWCC. Reflecting on the successes of the charity and Wildlife Park, she tells me, “We are quite proud of [our achievements]. It’s a little charity, there’s only 9 trustees on it and we all have full time jobs. So it’s nice to know that anything you think you can do, go and do it because every little bit makes a difference. We never thought that 10 years ago this charity would still be running so successfully, with 6400 hedgehogs through the door. It’s having that idea and really choosing to do something about it and starting small.”

Saying goodbye to Willers, I reflect on my newfound hedgehog knowledge. While not personally affected, I know of a lot of unfortunate souls who might find comfort in the fact that lactose intolerance is a trait that they and hedgehogs share. When I asked Willers to impersonate a hedgehog sound, she laughed hard before complying, making a huffing sound uncannily like an exasperated supervisor. Despite this depressing association, I still found myself leaving a hibernation-friendly wild area in my back garden, in the hopes of attracting some wandering hog friends there for the incoming winter months.