Mating Season

It definitely seems that the hedgehog mating season has arrived for the local population.

My nightime trail cameras are no longer seeing hedgehogs pushing each other angrily, now I’m seeing lots of pairs with one, typically the larger, I assume the male, following directly behind the female for hours at a time.

Occasionally I see the odd attempting mating which always seems to fail. A great example below which certainly brought to my mind the old joke ‘How do Hedgehogs Mate’.

The answer. ‘Carefully’.

I’ve read that only very few hedgehog mating attempts are successful, maybe only 5%. Indeed the hours of following that the Male is subjected to may be a way for the female to test the strength and stamina of her potential mate.

So it would be an absolute miracle of trail camera footage if I was to actually capture a successful mating on camera. I already feel very lucky to have seen these attempted couplings.

My other recent highlight was a close encounter between one of my cats and a hedgehog. He, the cat, seems surprised but it’s all in a nights’ foraging for the hedgehog.