We're still trying to catch up with things after all the excitement of the night before last, when Nightshift moved back into the garden, into nest box 9c, bringing two little hoglets with her. We were still looking at some of the clips today.
Last night seemed much quieter by comparison, although there was quite a lot of activity on the patio which left us rather confused as to who was where.
The conclusion we came to was that Nightshift spent today in 9c with the elder of her two babies in 9c. We aren't certain where her tiny hoglet was, but we think it spent the day alone in 9a. This is the hoglet with the suspect foot, whom we have christened Saffy.
A larger hoglet spent the day in 9d. What is confusing is that the markings on the chap are very similar to the one in 9c.
After Nightshift moved the babies in, she went out of the garden and left them to their own devices. She seems to have told them that is is their new home, but they seem pretty independent. We don't know if Saffy couldn't find the way home or just decided to go it alone.
Nightshift's other baby even ventured into 9b. It had a good sniff round and came out - we wondered if it had gone into the wrong box. Nightshift has lost interest in it completely. We cleaned it out and put fresh straw in, but she hasn't even been close enough to find out.
At one time we had five hedgies in the garden, in different areas, all bar Nightshift being babies - don't know what's happened to the older ones. Most of the time the babies seem to get on OK, but we did have a bit of pushing and shoving.
Here's Nightshift getting up with baby:
Two of the hoglets eating side by side on the ATM. Look how the one one the right seems to be expecting a nudge from the other one:
Here they are a little later after moving outside:
and here's the little chap going to bed in 9d:
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Interesting to see that the butting behaviour starts in young hogs. I think it's all about dominance. Despite hogs often living in loose family groups, individually they are quite independent so perhaps it's the ones who assert themselves who make sure that they get the lion's share of the food. Survival of the fittest and all that.
ReplyDeleteWe were surprised to see the hoglets doing the butting. Hedgehogs don't seem to fight very often, fortunately. When one is about to butt, the other just seems to assume a defensive posture (or curl up) and wait for it to happen, in a resigned sort of way. They certainly are independent - even they tiny ones go off exploring on their own, even if they do come back to mum, although we're quite worried as Nightshift's smallest isn't with her.
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