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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