Who are Catwoman and Potter? They sound like Batman’s archenemies. Well Catwoman is a 1,200g female hedgehog and Potter an 800g male hedgehog. They are rescue hedgehogs from Wirral Animal Rescue Centre based near Hoylake Station. Their names were pulled out of a jar when they arrived at the centre.
They were released on a fine summer evening at New Ferry Butterfly Park. They have been given their own hog house and bespoke hog feeding station just to help them get started off in their new natural habitat. Both the hog house and the hog feeder were expertly made by Martin Sharp of Wirral Animal Rescue Centre. Martin thought that the habitat at New Ferry Butterfly Park superb for hedgehogs. There are lots of mature dead wood habitat piles which they like and extensive woodland edge habitat as well as 400 metres of native laid hedgerow with dense bases. I was surprised at their limited lifespan of only two years in the wild. Martin brought leaflets about the danger of rubbish and litter causes to hedgehogs. It is good to be reminded.
At dusk with hushed excitement, we put the hogs into the hog house. We left the newly arrived hogs snuffling in the hog house and occasionally sticking their noses out to sniff the new surroundings. We will monitor them closely but it is expected that they will leave the hog house and make their own arrangements.
Martin gruesomely warned us about the increasingly cunning foxes who play the long game and lay in wait behind the curled hedgehog and until it unfurls and catches the unsuspecting hedgehog by the hind leg as it moves off.
The centre rescues about 400 hedgehogs a year! If you see a hedgehog in the day it is it definitely in trouble. They are always looking for further support, financial, volunteer time, names for the hedgehogs and welcome visitors to the centre. In spring time they are looking for suitable sites to house the rescued hedgehogs. Please get in touch with them:
Paul Loughnane
For more photographs of Potter and Catwoman and their release, take a look at the Flying Canadian Photography blog:
flyingcanadianphotography.blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-wirral-animal-sanctuarys-hedgehog-centre/
For more photographs of Potter and Catwoman and their release, take a look at the Flying Canadian Photography blog:
flyingcanadianphotography.blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-wirral-animal-sanctuarys-hedgehog-centre/
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