As a result, Knowles appealed for support to fund “a large-scale rescue” that would have capacity for 500 animals.
“Most of the hedgehogs are here for around a month,” she said.
“Obviously, if they give birth here, they’re here for a longer time – so long as they choose to raise their own children.”
According to Hugh Warwick, spokesperson for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, hedgehogs give birth to their young between mid- and late May, and a hot spell can leave them “extremely vulnerable”,
“Each time we get a hot spell, we get an absolute flurry of young and baby hedgehogs being taken into rescue,” he said.
“Hedgehogs come out at night because that is when their food is available.
“Hedgehog food is the macro invertebrates – the bigger bugs and beasts – and most of these bigger bugs and beasts like cool and damp.”
