Prickly (Pair) Trio

The Chartwell watchdog Benjamin Labrador is surely one of the most prolific scouts to sniff out and bring home hedgehogs whenever he can. If you have ever tried to pick up one of these little critters, you will know how difficult it is, and how painful the pricks in your fingers can be.

Nevertheless, last night Bennie lived up to his name as a dedicated scout. Just after supper, as the family was settling down to watch the TV news, Sophie alerted us with one of her famous yelps that something was up. We went to look, and there was Bennie with a cute little very-much-alive hedgehog. Time for incarceration in the green laundry bucket. Bennie was awarded his regular “Good Boy” pat on the head, and everyone settled back to see the news, which had been placed on pause.

Everyone, except Benjamin.

Ten minutes later, Sophie alerted the household once more. No prizes for guessing. However, this time the hedgehog was a late hedgehog, with blood and a bit of guts all over the shop, so to speak. Bennie’s mouth was also not quite perfect. The ex-hedgehog was placed in the red laundry bucket. This coincidence had nothing to do with green=oK and red= dead , it simply worked out that way. Another “Good Boy” pat for Bennie, and finally we looked forward to seeing what the news had to offer.

Everyone, except, yes… Benjamin.

Half an hour later, with most of the news (including all the adverts) having been digested, Sophie sounded her final alert. A third still-living hedgehog was proudly displayed by Olympic-potential hedgehog hunter Benjamin Labrador.

Should number 3 be imprisoned in the green bucket or the red? It turned out that the red bucket was closest, so the newcomer ended up with Dead Dannie. Somehow, I don’t think that hedgehogs think that deeply, he simply accepted the local hospitality with the grace which befits any well-educated rodent.

This morning, I loaded the two buckets, with their three stinky inmates, into the back of the car and set off for St Andrew’s Presbyterian. After a few minutes I arrive. At my back is a signboard showing Reikorangi Road and Ngatiawa Road in opposite directions. To my left is the red roofed church of St Andrew. Our hedgehogs (well two of them) lay curled up like balls of grey knitting for a few moments, and then  scurried away to freedom of the bank of blue agapanthus flowers.

(Above): The trio of Bennie’s haul lie waiting on the grass opposite St Andrew’s, before heading for the hills.

Holy hedgehogs

Being kind to animals is one thing. But, when animals take advantage of kindness and make a nuisance of themselves, that’s where one has to draw the line. One such animal is the common hedge-hog.

Far from being cute and cuddly (except for their pups /piglets /hoglets), the local Reikorangi hedgehogs are persistent, with carelessness as their second name, when being in close proximity to anything resembling Bennie’s turf.

Bennie is unable to resist picking up these little critters whenever he encounters one in the shrubbery. He carefully picks them up in his huge jaw, with just sufficient jaw pressure to restrain the creature and not causing any damage to the inside of his mouth. He then brings the prize inside and places it on the floor in a prominent position for all to see. Once he is praised for his prowess as a hunter, Bennie’s interest in the prickly beings immediately wanes.

Our task then is to dispose of the surviving hedgehog in a spot where he will be safe from re-capture. When the hedgehog in question is captured in a dead/dying state, there is no problem with disposal – fling him over the fence into the neighbour’s grazing paddock. But, the live and mobile ones present much more of a problem: their intelligence is of such a level that they do not understand that re-entry to the Chartwell ground might involve a certain demise. 

The policy is to carefully place the living ones in the undergrowth about 4 kilometres away, near St Andrew’s Anglican Church, which is on the way to the station, the shops and the rest of the outside world from Reikorangi Valley, roughly half the distance from Kents Road to the Waikanae town centre.

(Above): The dotted red line indicates the route from Kents Road to a patch of gardens and shrubbery opposite St Andrew’s, via Ngatiawa Road to Reikorangi Road.

There must have now been close on to a dozen hogs which have been transported from Kents Road to opposite the church for re-cycling.  I can only say Holy hedgehogs!

Reikorangi Big Game Hunters

New Zealand has a reputation as being a “green” pristine country with all the beauties of nature on show. Just as important, there are no territorial (land) snakes, native or imported, no lions, no tigers or any other such nasties which can kill you.

However, there is a small team of big game hunters in the Reikorangi Valley, to hunt down and capture the wild creatures around here: Below, we bring you a scoop preview of the team members and examples of their hauls:

Benny, the hedgehog king. He can hold even the biggest and heaviest of these hardy critters in his mouth, without damaging his cheeks or gums. Benny is probably the Reikorangi hunter king with a large tally of nocturnal hedgehogs to his name.

 
Sophie has recently demonstrated her prowess by capturing and bringing home this bunny, without really harming it. Rumour has it that the bunny died of heart failure. She has only caught one (so far) – on Goat’s Hill.

Cocoa caught this wee mouselet this afternoon. (see yellow arrow and outline). We couldn’t get a decent photo of the agile mite, not even one in focus. But then, again, Cocoa is not much of a hunter – he’s quite good at snoozing.  Sorry, Cocoa.

Hunter-gatherer

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