Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-8bljj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-06T14:43:44.413Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Study of Rehabilitated Juvenile Hedgehogs After Release Into the Wild

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

P A Morris  and
H Warwick
P A Morris*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK
H Warwick
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 OEX, UK
*
† Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Many juvenile hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are ‘rehabilitated’ with little or no previous experience of life in the wild. A study is described in which twelve such animals were monitored after release in Devon. They quickly learned their way about, built nests and found them again, and interacted normally with each other and with wild conspecifics. While several showed significant weight loss, this represented only the excess accumulated in captivity. Deaths caused by a predator (badger) and motor cars suggest that captives destinedfor release should not be allowed to become tame and unwary. However, deaths are to be expected in natural circumstances and at least one third of these animals survived beyond the nine-week study, despite having no previous experience of life in the wild. This supports the belief that, although deaths are to be expected, rehabilitating hedgehogs (even naïve juveniles) is possible and worthwhile.

Keywords

animal welfarebehaviourjuvenile hedgehogsrehabilitationsurvival
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , August 1994 , pp. 163 - 177
Copyright
© 1994 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, H 1993 Atlas of Mammals in Britain. HMSO: LondonGoogle Scholar
Burton, M 1957 Hedgehog self anointing. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 129: 452–453Google Scholar
Doncaster, P 1992 Testing the role of intraguild predation in regulating hedgehog populations. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B 249: 113–117Google ScholarPubMed
Morris, P A 1984 An estimate of the minimum body weight necessary for hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) to survive hibernation. Journal of Zoology 203: 291–294Google Scholar
Morris, P A 1988 A study of home range and movements in the hedgehog {Erinaceus europaeus). Journal of Zoology 214: 433–449Google Scholar
Morris, P A, Meakin, K and Sharafi, S 1993 The behaviour and survival of rehabilitated hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus). Animal Welfare 2: 53–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, P A, Munn, S and Craig-Wood, S 1991 Rehabilitated hedgehogs: can they cope? In Thomas T (ed) Proceedings of the Third Symposium, British Wildlife Rehabilitation Council pp 9–14. RSPCA Horsham: SussexGoogle Scholar
Morris, P A, Munn, S and Craig-Wood, S 1993 The effects of releasing captive hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) into the wild. Field Studies 8: 89–99Google Scholar
Reeve, N J 1982 The home range of the hedgehog as revealed by a radio tracking study. In Cheeseman C L and Mitson R B (eds) Telemetric Studies of Vertebrates. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 49: 207–230Google Scholar
Reeve, N J and Morris, P A 1985 Construction and use of summer nests by the hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus). Mammalia 49: 187–194CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sainsbury, A W, Cunningham, A A, Morris, P A and Macgregor, S K (in prep) The health and welfare of rehabilitated juvenile hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) before and after release.Google Scholar