His Royal Hedgehogs
Charles adopts 3 hoglets to eat slugs and snails on Scots estate
He has never shied away from prickly issues such as global warming and the benefits of organic farming.
So Prince Charles’s latest contribution to protecting the environment should perhaps be no surprise – he has rescued three baby hedgehogs.
He has rehomed a male and two female hoglets at his Scottish charity base, Dumfries House in Ayrshire, in the hope they will lead to a brood of little Tiggywinkles.
Hedgehogs are among Britain’s most endangered mammals. In the 1950s there were more than 30 million in the UK but it is estimated that there are fewer than a million today. Populations in rural
‘They’re an organic pesticide’
areas have halved in the past 20 years due to intensive agriculture techniques, pesticides, new roads and building development.
In towns and villages, smaller and tidier gardens with impenetrable fences make it harder for them to roam in search of food.
This year they were included in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of threatened species.
Charles, who is patron of the Red Squirrel Survival Trust, is hoping his efforts will ensure hedgehogs thrive, at least in his small corner of Scotland, and in return will keep down the slugs and snails on his organic estate. If the scheme is a success, he intends to take more rescued wildlife.
The hoglets, thought to be four months old, have taken up residence in Dumfries House’s five - acre Queen elizabeth Walled Garden after being rescued and nursed back to a healthy weight by volunteers from Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue
Centre. Community volunteer Tom Anderson has constructed customised hedgehog houses for the new residents from timber found on the estate.
Julie Dougall, an educational gardener based in the organic-certified Kauffman education Garden at Dumfries House, said: ‘We’re trying to bring a biodiversity of wildlife back into the estate.
‘If the hedgehogs breed, great. The more, the better! It would be excellent for the species and for the estate.
‘The education garden is organic and they’re basically a pesticide that doesn’t harm the soil, taking care of bugs, slugs and snails.’
She added that the new arrivals will be ‘great for the education’ of children who visit the garden
‘We’d love to give more hedgehogs and other rescued wildlife a home on the estate,’ she said.