Kiwis warming to the hedgehog’s softer side

A spike in hedgehog fascination has led to an online community helping residents take in injured or sick hedgehogs.

Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand runs a Facebook page, where people who come across an ill hedgehog can receive advice on how to rehabilitate the mammal.

The hedgehog rescue community involves hedgehog lovers from all over New Zealand, with the group’s Facebook page boasting over 10,000 likes.

Jacqui Blair, one of the founders of Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand, said the creature’s popularity is increasing daily due to their charming traits and dismissed the impression that hedgehogs are filthy.

“They all have their own personalities and they’re not the disease-ridden animal people seem to think that they are.”

She said people’s fascination with hedgehogs has gone so far that the group is often asked if hedgehogs could be domesticated.

“It might be a trend that is growing because they’re a lot of people who are asking us if they can use hedgehogs as pets but the wild hedgehog is not a pet and it would be cruel to make them a pet.”

Domesticated breeds of hedgehog do exist, but differ to the wild European hedgehog introduced into New Zealand in the 1870s.

Mangere hedgehog enthusiast, Gemma Cale, rehabilitates and releases unwell hedgehogs that she comes across on her property.

She is caring for three hedgehogs called Darryl, Sonic and Davy Jones in a box in her room and said that their charm and cuteness was what caused people to open their homes for them.

She said hedgehogs were clever escape artists if not contained properly but did become friendly towards humans.

“I have my vanity right next to my box and I’ll be doing my makeup, they’ll hear me and come up and look at me.”

Despite the rising love affair, hedgehogs are listed as a pest by DOC and can threaten native species like skinks, weta and ground nesting birds.

But Peg Logue of Hedgehog Haven, a hedgehog rescue centre in Taupo, questioned why the animals were listed as pests, given that native species and hedgehogs often don’t share the same habitat.

“They don’t need to co-exist because there are many parts of the country where those natives aren’t present.”

She said the attention hedgehogs were receiving was pleasing but said there were those who continued to stigmatise the creature.

“You’ve got the ones who hate hedgehogs because they’re disease-ridden. I have been handling hedgehogs for 22 years, lots of sick and really poorly ones and I have not caught anything off them.”

The SPCA also rescues sick or injured hedgehogs and work in hand with Hedgehog Rescue New Zealand.