00:00It might look cute, but there's a reason this hedgehog is so small.
00:04Lisa from Thorn Hedgehog Rescue says this hoglet, like many others this year,
00:09was abandoned by its mother, likely due to a lack of food supply available after the hot and dry summer.
00:15We have been seeing masses of abandoned litters where the mums just can't cope with the babies.
00:21There isn't enough of a food supply and there isn't enough water,
00:24and they just can't cope with the hoglets that they've been having.
00:27So we've seen a massive increase in babies coming in this year.
00:31We're getting hoglets that should be much bigger than they are, so they almost have delayed development.
00:37We're seeing a lot of hoglets coming in with weakened immune systems.
00:42They've got the teeth and the facial features and the fur of maybe a five or six week old,
00:47but they're coming in really, really tiny, sort of looking like they're two or three weeks old.
00:51This is an example of some of the issues that Lisa and other rescues across the country have been noticing.
00:57This hedgehog is estimated to be about six to eight weeks old, but should be double the size.
01:03And as you can see, he's very, very tiny.
01:06Hedgehogs primarily will dig and forage for insects.
01:09They're not massive slug, snail and worm eaters.
01:12And if they have too many of those, it can actually cause an overburden of parasites,
01:16which not only makes them very poorly, they can pass on to the hoglets in the womb as well.
01:21But is it just the rescues that have been noticing a change?
01:24When was the last time you saw a hedgehog?
01:27I don't know. Five years since I've seen one. It's a long time.
01:31I didn't know, first of all, actually, that you have hedgehogs here because I've never seen one.
01:37So to hear that they are here and that they are in danger, I think is quite upsetting.
01:42As a child in the 70s, we had loads of them in the garden.
01:47You know, we were respectful for them.
01:50But very rare now you get to see the hedgehogs.
01:53If you notice a hedgehog out during the day, injured or seeming confused,
01:57there are lots of things you can do to help.
02:00Allow them from garden to garden.
02:01Hedgehog highways are really, really important.
02:04Normally, a hedgehog will dig and forage for food up to 10 or 12 gardens a night
02:08and travel one to two miles, so they really need these long distances
02:11to be able to get the food supply that they need to survive.
02:15While we're in long, hot, dry weather, putting food and water out is really important.
02:20We suggest that if you start feeding, you do that all year round because of the weather.
02:24The milder winters, a lot of hedgehogs don't hibernate at all anymore.
02:27Cat Biscuits is absolutely perfect, nutritionally complete
02:31and the crunch of the kibble keeps their teeth healthy.
02:33Rescues like Lisa's are giving hedgehogs a second chance.
02:36But with extreme weather becoming more common,
02:39the hope is that Britain's most familiar wildlife won't need rescuing just to survive.
02:44Kristen Hawthorne for KMTV, Pluckley.
