Benny the hunter-gatherer rushed out into the darkness late last night to…, well, to do what all good male dogs do under over of darkness at night. Without any street lights, or yard lights from any neighbours, or any moonlight to illuminate your surroundings, Chartwell sure has some dark darkness.
After a while, Sophie appeared in the pool of light outside the door, with that urgent come-look-see eyes and wildly wagging tail. The cause of her apparent excitement was soon obvious, as Bennie entered the picture with a grey-brown “tennis ball” in his open jaws.
Yes, Bennie the hunter-gatherer had hunted and gathered a medium-size hedgehog from the Chartwell darkness, and was now presenting us with his trophy. Clayton’s task was to convince Bennie to release the little ball of prickles without crushing it first. He gingerly extricated the little critter and proceeded to administer a magic water treatment to Bennie’s jaw, followed by the kitchen paper towel test, to check for excessive bleeding. Luckily, Bennie came off none the worse for wear, with a clean bill of health.
These cute little guys are considered to be a pest, since they prey on native fauna. Hedgehogs were introduced to control garden pests such as slugs, snails and grass grubs, while wild pigs are one of the few predators of the hedgehog, and the flightless, endemic Weka will prey on nestlings.
As well as preying on invertebrates hedgehogs may have contributed to the decline and extinction of up to fifteen bird species. The New Zealand hedgehogs, as with their European counterparts, carry various parasites and diseases. They are a potential carrier of foot-and-mouth disease if it were to reach New Zealand
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