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Hedgehog rescue!



On 25th July 2019 (the hottest day of the year!) four hoglets were found out in the sun by the Overbury construction site compound outside the Medical School (where we had seen ‘Shelley’ the hedgehog’s footprints during our survey). At first only two were seen by a member of staff. Around an hour later the Overbury workers found two more hoglets in their compound. They were taken to the Orchard Veterinary Centre in Harbourne, one recommended by BHPS. Two of the hoglets were named Branston and Pickle by the member of staff who had found them, and the other two were named Michelle and Sheldon by the Overbury workers.



We had received reports of a dead hedgehog on the road by Vincent Drive a week prior to the hoglet rescue. We thought this might be ‘Shelley’ the Overbury works hedgehog, so we put out the survey tunnels and a trail camera but had no sightings. So we believe that these were Shelley’s litter of babies, and when the temperature had become incredibly hot, they came out the nest searching for her as they were very dehydrated. We raised some money to buy three of the hedgehog crossing signs from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) website to put on Vincent Drive to alert people to be aware of the local wildlife.


A month later, the orphaned hoglets were doing well and the vet continued to rehabilitate them until their release in September. As a thank you for their help, we collected tins of cat/dog food as well as dry biscuits to donate to the vets.



On 12th September 2019 we released back into the wild our four orphaned hoglets; Branston, Pickle, Sheldon and Michelle. Two were released near the Medical School and two by Physics on the main campus where we hope they will make friends with Sonic the resident hog there. We were very happy to have Moseley MP Martin Straker join us, and it was great to find out how much he loved hedgehogs and wildlife! I hope we can continue a great partnership for this campaign.




Good luck hoggies!




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