These days you can increasingly see them rustling through the leaves: large and small hedgehogs. They seem to be looking for food or shelter. Because they look so cute, you want to take them home with you. Biologist Marion Dorsch explains why this is not a good idea. She is a hedgehog expert at the State Association for Bird Protection (LBV) in Munich.
SZ: Ms. Dorsch, how can you help hedgehogs get through the winter?
Marion Dorsch: Basically, when you have a garden by designing it as close to nature as possible. That is, planting native shrubs and sowing wildflowers. These are the basis of life for insects, which in turn are eaten by the hedgehog.
And otherwise?
It helps hedgehogs offer water and leave a pile of fallen leaves or dead wood where they can hibernate. In autumn you can still feed, but not in the winter months, otherwise the animals will not go into hibernation. It makes sense to give them a chance to slip through in the garden fence. Hedgehogs remember where they can go. You have some kind of map in your head with strategically important points. They also like thick hedges to hide.
The biologist Marion Dorsch is the hedgehog expert at the State Association for Bird Protection in Munich.
(Photo: F. Lauer / LBV picture archive)
When do hedgehogs need additional food?
That depends on your weight. A fully grown animal weighs around 1000 grams and is about 30 centimeters long. In order to sleep through the winter months, a hedgehog needs at least 500 to 600 grams, something that young animals sometimes don’t bring with them. Especially if they weren’t born until the end of August or September.
How do you recognize such particularly young animals?
They then usually have a more pear-shaped body. Emaciated animals have sunk into something behind the head. It is also not a good sign if a hedgehog is lying on its side. Then it’s better to take him to the vet or the animal shelter.
Can you pick up hedgehogs? Or does it hurt them?
In any case, you have to lift it carefully and never without gloves. Hedgehogs are wild animals and also have parasites. In addition, the spines can prick. With gloves you can also carefully place the hedgehog on a scale.
What if the animal weighs less than 500 grams?
Then you can still try to foster it in the next few weeks. But be careful: Do not give milk, because hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and get diarrhea from it. Also do not feed fruit or vegetables. You need fat and protein to gain weight. Hedgehogs prefer to eat insects.
But you don’t always have them at hand.
But sometimes in the garden under the flower pot. You can often find woodlice and earwigs there, they are a treat for hedgehogs. But they also like canned cat food with a bit of wheat bran or oatmeal stretched. You can also offer unseasoned scrambled eggs and seared minced meat. Also unseasoned. Never give eggs and meat raw!
Can you bring hedgehogs home?
They are under special species protection. If they are healthy and unharmed, they cannot simply be taken from nature and torn out of their surroundings. If an animal has ever come out onto the street or is sitting under a car, it is better to push it gently back into the bushes.
Can you even hibernate a little hedgehog in the apartment?
At most on a balcony where it is cool, but you shouldn’t do that if you don’t know your way around. Such a winter is long and you have to look after the animal intensively and appropriately, especially when it is not sleeping. Hibernating hedgehogs is a case for professional hands. If you are not sure whether a hedgehog is okay and what to do spontaneously when you find one, it is better to ask us or at the animal shelter. I can also recommend the website www.igel-in-Bayern.de. All hedgehogs – living and dead – can be reported there and via the app of the same name. This provides valuable data on the hedgehog population in Bavaria.
You offer workshops at LBV to build a hedgehog castle. Not for the nursery, right?
No, for the garden. Such a house has a small loophole, should be laid out with dry leaves, straw or hay and should be hidden under branches in the open air.
The next “hedgehog workshop” will take place on Friday, October 22nd, in dry weather. Start: 3 p.m. The meeting point is the Grünwerkstatt, Helsinkistraße 57. You can register by email at: [email protected] necessary. Participation is free and the number of participants is limited. The current hygiene and distance rules apply to the hedgehog workshop. Please bring an FFP2 mask and work gloves.