Welcome to Seymour and Sal's HogBlog

 Welcome to Seymour and Sal's HogBlog.

Seymour and Sal are two hedgehogs that frequently visit our garden through the warmer months.  First discovered in Autumn 2021 by accident one evening, their presence has been a joy and a delight, particularly after a wildlife camera was installed to try to capture some footage.

This screenshot, taken from a video in June 2022, shows the pair at the dish of hedgehog food.  Sal is on the left of the picture, while Seymour is on the right.  

Initially, the hogs were wary of sharing and often bristled up around their faces when invading each other's space.  But generally speaking, there's enough food for the two of them and they visit throughout the night, and although they generally having their own preferred foraging times, these do tend to overlap. 

After some weeks of close observation, it became easy to tell them apart.  Seymour has a longer face that Sal, his upper jaw extends further, and as a result of an injury we saw him with in the autumn, his left leg has a thickened ankle joint.  

We were glad to see him overwinter successfully as we're not certain where he hibernated and any injury going into winter increases the risk to any wild animal.

Sal's face is shorter, and generally she has a less-lugubrious expression.  Added to that, slightly thinner leg and foot bones makes it easier to identify her.  In this image, taken 10/07/2023, Sal is in the background, while Seymour is to the front of the photograph.

A note on gender and associated issues:

We have tried not to arbitrarily assign gender to our guests, believing that it's nobody's business but their own, as and long as the hogs know who they are, that's all that matters.

But purely for our own ease of identification, we did name them, but waited until we had evidence before doing so.

Hedgehogs are rich in fleas, and, as a result, contort themselves into incredible shapes just to get to the itch.  Being unaware of the camera, too, they quite often expose their undersides as they reach with a rear leg to get rid of the flea, and the results will often end up on camera.  Seymour became known as Seymour after one such video made his physical gender clear; Sal held on to her dignity for far longer, but, eventually, a scratch-fest and a low-hanging tummy revealed that Sal is not only female, but appears to be in the family way.

P.S.  Apparently, in order to comply with European rules, the blog needs to inform visitors what cookies are in use here. This is beyond the creator's current level of skills, so, assume there will be cookies, but not deliberately sought by the creator of this blog.