Hedgehog triplets

A rather large hedgehog at the back of my garden turned out to be pregnant. Some weeks later I spotted three infants…

The story behind the photos…

I spotted what appeared to be a heavily pregnant female hedgehog in the undergrowth at the back of my garden and, within a few months was started to see a tiny baby hedgehog scampering past my French windows. This was quite a feat and I could not figure out how it got there, as it would need to navigate two very steep steps down to the path that runs along the back of my bungalow.

There is no way back onto the garden other than by means of those two steps which might just as well have been a vertical cliff-face to the hedgehog.

I could see that the hedgehog wanted to get back up into the garden; it was stretching its legs and toes up in a desperate attempt to reach the first step, but it wasn’t going to happen, so I got on my heavy duty gardening gloves, gently picked it up and place it down on the lawn. It rolled up into a prickly ball of course and remained stock still for some time, but then moved off towards the apple trees.

As I watched it I noticed another infant running up and down behind the apple trees, stopping to have a good sniff of the ground along the way. I could not believe it: twins! In all this time I was so captivated it did not enter my head to get the camera and tripod set up – but I’m glad I did. Once set up and at a safe distance I was able to get the snaps shown here. It was only then I noticed there was a third baby, but this one did not move very much and I took it to be perhaps rather weak.

I left a dish of water out for them and wondered where there mother was; I had not seen here for three weeks. I saw the babies on three separate days after that first day, but only two of them, and always in the same general area at about the same time of day. I’ve not seen them since but I hope they are OK. They are adorable creatures.