The only spiny mammal living in Britain is the hedgehog and that makes it the most easily recognised small mammal we have, probably. However, telling one hedgehog from another is not at all easy. We have a thriving hedgehog population at Cowbar but trying to work out exactly how many is a challenge. Is The Hedgehog Café supporting just one or two very frequent callers or a wider clientele?
As with many mammals, telling males from females can be quite straightforward; all that is required is a good glimpse of the undercarriage. If a hedgehog scratches or has a good shake, then the mini cam footage often captures whether it’s a male or female. So far so good but if the next visitor is also a male, how can we tell whether it’s the same one returning to The Hedgehog Cafe for pudding or a different one?
Hedgehogs get about a bit. They have surprisingly long legs and can trot on at quite a pace, travelling as much a mile a night. The café clientele might be coming from Cowbar Nab, the cliff top, the allotments, the railway embankment or down beck side. We simply have not the remotest idea.
Some people have suggested that a pattern might be detected in the 6-7000 spines on the hedgehog’s back. Our footage might show a very dark cluster of spines which gets noted but then not seen again. Is that because every time a hedgehog raises its spines they get laid back down in a different pattern or because the café is a motorway services for some hedgehogs who might only call once in their lifetime?
Another suggestion is that the hair on hedgehog’s snout will differ from one to another. We have found this to be true. But then the same hedgehog will look different if he moves two steps away from the mini cam and turns his head slightly. And if a hedgehog has been rummaging about in wet grass looking for beetles, earwigs, millipedes, slugs and worms to eat, it’s a hopeless technique as the snout is covered in clumps of sodden hair.
Of course the simplest method of identification is name badges but it’s likely that animal charities would soon be on our case if word got around that we were putting badges on hedgehogs’ chests or lanyards around their necks. Sometimes though we are lucky and a hedgehog takes the initiative by sporting a blade of grass or chaperoning a tick. But rarely do their ID badges stay put and the next night we are invariably back to square one.