Hedgehogs

[staceyhallam]

Hi everyone

I am doing a study on krimpvarkie in the karoo. I am based at Jules of the Karoo, I am sure being hunters, most of you will be familiar with this farm. The study is mainly on the physiology of hedgehogs but after starting the research I have been made aware of the fact that some South Africans don?t even realise that we have hedgehogs in our country. So one of the new aims of the project is to create awareness about this species. So I have compiled some facts about hedgehogs and would appreciate any further information you can give me, based on your own observations.

If you encounter a hedgehog in the future I would really appreciate if you would send me a message containing a GPS location or basic location, the sex of the hedgehog (if you can get it to unroll), ball length (i.e. the length of the hedgehog when it is rolled up in a ball, along the widest part of the ball) or if you have nothing to measure it with, then a photo next to a note of money will be sufficient to estimate size.  This information will greatly contribute towards a population census, as well as a new distribution map.

Hedgehogs belong to the Order Insectivora, and are related to shrews and moles.  Hedgehogs are one of the most primitive animals on the planet and have been around for over 30 million years.  The Southern African Hedgehog or krimpvarkie (Atelerix frontalis) is one of 14 species of hedgehog in the world.  Scientists believe that there could be more species of hedgehog because they are so understudied.  Hedgehogs are protected by approximately 7000 prickly quills.  Their quills have small air pockets, which make them slightly flexible and very strong; in fact they can cushion a hedgehog?s fall.  Their quills are a lot smaller than the quills of a porcupine or ystervark (Hystrix africaeaustralis), they also are not barbed nor do they come out.  Hedgehogs often eat venomous animals and lather their quills in saliva afterwards, to make their prick more painful and irritating.  They are also known to do this simply with a new scent (odor-marking) such as dog faeces.

Hedgehogs are omnivorous but feeds mainly on insects.  Hedgehogs are known as the gardener?s friend because they can eat up to 100 invertebrates a day.  They are also known to eat eggs, chicks, lizards, small mice, earthworms and carrion.  They drink water when available but get most of their moisture from their food.  Hedgehogs are mostly nocturnal and usually curl up in burrows, or under leaves and twigs, dense grass or bushes during the day.  However, after heavy rain they are often seen out during the day.  Hedgehogs are incredibly agile, and can climb through spaces as small as chicken mesh.  However, a flat surface, no more than 40cm high will impede its movement.  Hedgehogs weigh between 236 and 480 grams and lives approximately 3 years. 

During Spring and Summer, boars (male hedgehogs) and sows (female hedgehogs) mate and can have 1-9 hoglets (young hedgehogs) after a gestation period of approximately 5 weeks.  They are able to have more than one litter per season. However, the second litter are often born too late to accumulate enough fat stores to survive.  Lion, leopard, caracal and the Giant Eagle owl are known to prey on hedgehogs. Hedgehog threats include roads, predation by humans, capture for use in traditional medicines and as pets, some farming practices, electric fences, cattle grids, open drains, drowning, fire, chemicals and climatic changes such as the increased incidence of lengthy droughts.

When to be concerned about a hedgehog:
If a hedgehog is wondering about during the day, it could be sick or injured.  If there is not a noticeable injury, put food near it and watch it for a while.
If a hedgehog does not roll into a ball immediately when approached, it could be sick or injured.
If sick or injured, please contact your nearest veterinarian.
If found in early winter and weighs less than 500 grams.
If under weight, keep in a cage of box and feed with tinned dog food, dog biscuits and as much natural food as possible (e.g. insects).
Hedgehogs have a lot of parasites so avoid handling them too much and when cleaning bedding use gloves to avoid getting bitten by hedgehog fleas.  After they weigh more than 600g, either keep them for the duration of winter (providing a suitable place to sleep) or release them.

Feeding while in captivity:
They will eat tinned dog food, dog biscuits, mince and a particular treat is bacon rinds and droewors.
Put the food in your garden, inside a box with a small hole cut in it (make sure you weight it down with a brick or large rock inside) so that cats cannot get to it.
Place treats just inside the entrance to their nest box as well.

If any of you or your family members are interested in gardening or making your garden hedgehog friendly, I have compiled some information on Hedgehog Friendly Gardening (it was originally for the De Aar garden club) that I can post.

Thanks for reading this post. I hope it has been interesting.
Stace

[Yalair]

Stace
Welcome to the forum and thank you this is very informative and am sure we can get you more info on the wherabouts of the krimpvarkies, please feel free to post as many info as you can on this forum.

Regards

[Yalair]

Some pics from Stace

[Ambessa]

Hallo Stace

"During Spring and Summer, boars (male hedgehogs) and sows (female hedgehogs) mate and can have 1-9 hoglets (young hedgehogs) after a gestation period of approximately 5 weeks."

Never too old to learn something new. Amasing they are called boars, sows and hoglets. Quite piggy if I may say, should have known by looking at the name Hedgehogs.

Ambessa

[Christo]

Yaliar

Lyk my die shrinkpigs vat 'n man nie aan sonder handskoene nie.
C

[britsman]

Ambessa,

Hallo Stace

"During Spring and Summer, boars (male hedgehogs) and sows (female hedgehogs) mate and can have 1-9 hoglets (young hedgehogs) after a gestation period of approximately 5 weeks."

Never too old to learn something new. Amasing they are called boars, sows and hoglets. Quite piggy if I may say, should have known by looking at the name Hedgehogs.

Ambessa

I say old chap. Who are you trying to impress? You will be banished to from this forum for using language like that. ---- only joking
Here in the Stormberg I have only seen hedgehogs on two occasions in the last fifty odd years.Must be too cold for them OR what?

Cheers mate,
                  britsman

[Yalair]

Stace
Some info please, if I go to look for hedgehogs where do I start looking, is there a spesific area in a veld where I should start ?

[Ambessa]

Hallo guys

I thought Stace would get you actively involved in finding and recording the whereabouts of these hoggies.

Nice work, keep it up.

Ambessa

[Ambessa]

Hallo Britsman

Yep, ek gebruik brits vir meer as selfverdediging. Thanks.

Ambessa

[Freek]

Dag Stacey!

Baie dankie vir die terug voer, dit is verblydend om te sien dat jy so besorg is oor die diertjies. Kan jy vir ons statisktieke bekend stel van areas in die land waar hierdie diertjies se getalle op die oomblik die meeste voorkom?

Groete

[staceyhallam]

Hi everyone

Thank you so much for your replies and interest. In response to your questions:

Britsman, I don't think that the reason why you aren't seeing them is because it is too cold. They are very hardy animals and where I am catching them, the temperatures in winter are frequently below freezing. I must admit that I do not know much about the weather near you, what is it like in summer? The fact that you have seen them in your area before suggests that they are around. One of our main problems is that we do not know much about hogs in South Africa at all. Maybe after this winter I will be able to tell you if I think it is too cold for them where you live. One of the main reasons why we think people are not seeing hedgehogs is that they are particularly cryptic and hard to find, even if you are actively looking, and I truly beleive that their numbers have declined. Alot of people have said that when they were kids they found hogs everywhere and now they are lucky if they see them once in 5 years.

Yalair, I have no information on where in the veld to look. As far as I can tell they don't prefer specific areas. I wish they did... it would make my life easier  From information on European hogs and personal observations, I don't beleive they are territorial. They seem to only stay in one place when they have a nest of babies, or if they have found a particularly good food source. You could try using an electric bug zapper in your garden. They seem to be attracted to them and eat the dead insects from under them. I will post the info on hedgehog friendly gardening, it is quite an incredible sight to see a hog walking in a garden or eating insects under a bug zapper. They can become quite tame.

Freek, I will get someone to translate your question for me this evening. I am not South African by birth and have never had the opportunity to learn afrikaans. I am trying to rectify this but I am finding it much more difficult than I thought  I will get back to you though.... scouts honour 

Stace

[staceyhallam]

The Gardener?s Friend

Hedgehogs are known as the gardener?s friend because they can eat up to 100 invertebrates a day.
Hedgehog Friendly Gardening
1. Avoid using poisons in the garden, especially snail pellets.  These can either affect the hedgehogs directly or they can eat the poisoned pests and accumulate the toxins in their tissues.
2. Provide artificial nesting sites by building nest boxes and burying them under branches and vegetation in your garden.
3. Providing food for hedgehogs in your garden will help them fatten up for winter as well as attract them to your garden.  Also make sure there is fresh water available.
4. Have a compost heap, hedgehogs will look for food in them and may even nest in them.
5. Cover all drains, which they could fall into.
6. Keep netting for peas etcetera a foot above the ground so they go under it instead of getting stuck in it.
7. Look through long grass before mowing.
8. Keep chemicals, oil and paint in a well-sealed shed or off the floor.
9. If you have a pond within their reach, leave a plank of wood leaning in so that they can climb out it they fall in.

Feeding
They will eat tinned dog food, dog biscuits, mince and a particular treat is bacon rinds.
Put the food in your garden, inside a box with a small hole cut in it (make sure you weight it down with a brick or large rock inside) so that cats cannot get to it.
Place treats just inside the entrance to their nest box as well.

When to be concerned about a hedgehog.
If a hedgehog is wondering about during the day, it could be sick or injured.  If there is not a noticeable injury, put food near it and watch it for a while.
If a hedgehog does not roll into a ball immediately when approached, it could be sick or injured.
- If sick or injured, please contact your nearest veterinarian.
If found in early winter and weighs less than 500 grams then it might not survive the winter.
-If under weight, keep in a cage of box and feed with tinned dog food, dog biscuits and as much natural food as possible (e.g. insects). 
N.B. Hedgehogs have a lot of parasites so avoid handling them too much and when cleaning bedding use gloves to avoid getting bitten by hedgehog fleas.  After they weigh more than 600g, either keep them for winter (providing a suitable place to sleep) or you can release them.

[britsman]

Stacey,
Surprise.I was reading your post about hogs, when the wife tells me that one of her many cats came home yesterday with 3 small quills stuck in its head.Would a hog release its quills like a porcupine or is the cat injuring the hoggie?
The Stormberg area(Molteno,Burgersdorp,Jamestown and Dordrecht) has for many years recorded the lowest temp in SA.(-18).But our farm is situated in one of the warmer areas with lowest temp of -10.
  I hear that there are hoggies in the towns of Burgersdorp and Aliwal North.

Regards,
            britsman

[Freek]

Hi Stacey, sorry I wasn't aware that you don't understand afrikaans.

I are now going attempt to put down my best English for you right here...

My question earlier. Is it possible for you to provide us with stats that could indicate the areas where these little animals are curently mostly encountered in SA?

        ...and my new question:

What is the possibility that we could look at setting-up a breeding sceme to help recover the declining numbers of these animals? I'm sure that all of us here are concerned about the future of the South African Hedgehog and we would most sertainly want to tackle such a project from the correct angle. Thus working hand in hand with people who know what they are doing, like yourself and others in the conservation industry.

Looking foward to your reply.

[staceyhallam]

Hey britsman

I hate to dissappoint you but hedgehogs quills do not detach like porcupines. In fact I think they moult once a year (info is once again based on Euro hogs). I am observing the hogs I have, we'll know more when it happens. If the quills were small, is it possible they were from an area of a porcupines body where they have shorter quills? If your cat does come across a hog, I doubt that it will be able to hurt it unless the hog is sick or injured already and unable to roll into a ball. Most likely the cat will come off second best. 
Thanks for the info regarding temp and your area. I will be able to tell you more towards the end of the year, once we see what the animals are doing.

Stace

[staceyhallam]

Hey Freek, thanks for the english, it is much appreciated. 

I have been trying to get hold of the people who updated the red data list a couple of years ago for stats, but I have had no luck at all (Its been a year of nagging phone calls and emails with nor reward). The best information I can give you is a distribution map which is extremely outdated. I was hoping this forum would give me enough info to start creating a new distribution map and also some stats. Unfortunately because of its behaviours, it is an extremely hard animal to monitor and as a result often gets overlooked. We are trying to get funding for transmitters, however attaching a transmitter to a hog is much more difficult than it sounds.  So we might have to get one specially designed which bumps the cost through the roof.

We have considered a breeding programme. The problem is we need to understand the species a bit more before we start a programme. We will only consider starting the process once we have got data back from this year. Once we decide to start there are then questions about funding, where to base the programme etc. We are dealing with a severely understudied group of animals, we have no idea what sort of numbers in the wild we are talking about, and as a result it is very hard to defend why we want to spend alot of money on them. At this point, any information we can get from people, who are out there on the land every day will help.

I am so pleased there are people out there who still care about animals and our environment. My colleagues have started calling me a 'bunny-hugger' instead of a scientist simply because I fell in love with this species, and a project which started out simply physiology based (pure science), has turned into a save the species campaign. 

I know most of the people reading this post, might not have ever seen a hog, never mind had the opportunity to touch or observe them; and as a result will not understand just how incredible these animals are, and that is my main reason for doing everything I do. I was extremely blessed to find a mother and 4 babies beginning of this year. I got to observe them over a week and a half. The interactions between these animals are amazing to watch. Have any of you witnessed your dog having a dream while it sleeps? Imagine a hog doing exactly the same thing. It is incredible, it makes me wonder what level of intelligence they have and what they are capable of.

Maybe one day everyone will have an opportunity to interact with these animals. Thanks for the replies and keeping an eye out for them.
Stace

[Freek]

Good work Stace.

As mentioned earlier there use to be a lot of these little animals in my home town (Vaalwater, Limpopo province). They regularly came out at night and approached our house to eat the insects which were attracted by the flood light. Even the Jack russels arround the house had a lot of respect for the Hedgehogs. The young, in experienced, dogs would bark and charge at these little animals only to turn arround, tail between the legs with a bleeding nose, running for shelter. After such a lesson they would only stand at a safe distance and bark as the hogs gracefully continues to eat the fallen insects paralised by the light. I never saw one of our dogs hurting such an animal, and it looks like they have quite a good defence system for such an attack.

As a young boy I usually went out at night and watch them feeding. Unfortunately their numbers reduced over the years and I can't remember when last did I saw a living animal in the wild - could be well over 20 years back 

In short I'm equaly excited about the work you are doing and the word is already out in the Waterberg area (Limpopo) amongst the farmers and game ranchers whom I know, to keep a look out for Hedgehogs and inform me as far as possible of any sitings. This information I would gladly pass on to you as I receive it.

Best of luck going foward and keep us informed on this project.

[staceyhallam]

Thank you Freek. I will definately keep you informed.

This is a distribution map for Atelerix frontalis


Below is a design for a nest box which is easy to make. The hole in the back of the nest box is for a small pipe for air circulation.

If you need any help while making your nest box. Please let me know.
Stace

[varkies forever]

hi stace,
i am new to this forum, we live in kwazulu natal, about an hour down south from durban along the coast. some people here have spotted the porcupine, but no hedgehogs.  i havent seen a hedgehog in about 20 or more years and it was not in this area that i saw one last. i also wanted to know on the afrikaans version of this topic about the breeding programme or something where we can aid in getting their numbers up, it is very sad to say that unfortunately some people feel that they need to kill these little creatures for food. what a waste. anyhoo, if you have any more info on the breeding please let me know on de_villiers_aman@hotmail.com.  you are doing great work bunny hugger or not... take care. amanda

[Winch]

Hi Stace,
I know this is probably not news what you wanted to hear.But after seeing the distribution map it seemed worth while to mention.In 2006 i found a hedge hog killed in the road,just outside my flat in Stellenbosch Western Cape.I was very surprised to find it and very sad as well.I have no idea whether it might have escaped from captivity or if it just strolled into town.
Hope the info helps!
Best of luck

[Freek]

Hi Stace.

No sitings from my side yet... It doesn't look good. 

I strongly suggest that we consider a breeding programme for these little animals. I know available info is scarce but we have to start something. I have enough space available to start such a project in the Waterberg (1500ha). If you are interested, please contact me freek.senekal@dhl.com or 082 878 5208.

[staceyhallam]

Hi everyone

Thank you so much for your replies. I would like to start a breeding programme. So, since we are talking about starting this programme. Would any of anyone or corporation that would consider giving us funding?

Thanks again
Stace

[staceyhallam]

Sorry guys. I just re-read my post and realised it doesn't make any sense. That will teach me not to proof read.  I meant.... does anyone know where we can get funding? From either individuals or corporations?

[WillJak]

Hi Stace, this is a little tongue in the cheek, but also a little bit serious - why do we need funding - it would seem to me all we need is some hedgehogs, some willing farmers, a few boxes in appropriately fenced gardens, some dogfood and kids willing to catch insects?

Point is, couldn't we get something like this off the ground by spreading the breeding program out over a whole bunch of guys, each caring for one family, and pass the off-spring on to others - with suitable mixing of individuals to ensure the gene pool remains undisturbed?

[Freek]

I agree with Willem's point. I also suggest that if we are serious enough about this whole project that we arrange a meeting in an attempt to get a group together that want to be part of this whole exersize and discuss a plan foward.

As mentioned earlier I can provide space and I'm more than willing to put hand in pocket to errect the necessary infrastructure on the available land as well as supply water, food, vacsines, care etc. to facilitate the breeding project. But this unfortunately is as far as I can go for now. I'm sure there is others amongst us that can contribute the same or even more. The point that I want to make is that we need to discuss and plan our available resources in a meeting and then take it from there.