Temporary home found for hedgehog family
A family of hedgehogs has been rescued from a West Sussex garden for temporary rehoming while a new hedgehog house is built for them.
The prickly family was discovered by UK Power Networks’ linesmen Lee Cocklin and Danny Bishop in Stane Street, Pulborough, while they were moving cables onto a new electricity pole.
The team called the company’s environment adviser and consulted an ecologist before getting in touch with Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital, in Horsham, where the hedgehogs will be cared for until they are ready to be released back into the wild at the spot where they were found.
Lee said: “A fence panel was lying down near the electricity pole and we had to move it to carry out the work. I didn’t see them at first, because they were covered in grass. They were snuggled up together in the nest.
“A couple woke up and started walking away so Dan and I put them back in the nest with the others and made calls. A lady gave us a shoebox and we put them in that to keep them safe until our engineer arrived with a bigger box and he took them to the wildlife centre.
“It was very exciting to see them, and I’ve heard they are doing well, which is good.”
Jane Burrows, founder and chairman of Rangers Lodge Wildlife Hospital, said: “They have their mum with them and she is providing them with plenty of fat and nutrients in her milk, and they are well developed babies. In the wild she would be taking them round the garden foraging, showing them what to do.
“The owner of the house will be taking them back but doesn’t have a hedgehog house yet and a normal sized hedgehog house won’t cover it. She is getting someone to make a big house so they can go back to the habitat they know, so they will only be staying with us temporarily.”