Hedgehogs are popular garden visitors and we know a lot about them.

Don’t give hedgehogs milk. They hibernate in winter. They eat slugs...maybe? They visit feeding stations and entertain home owners with their antics on trail cameras.

The hedgehog population is in decline. This is the puzzle. If hedgehog numbers are going down why do we get a hedgehog brought into the centre almost every day?

Recent research has shown that hedgehogs do better in gardens than in the countryside.

The countryside is too managed, hedges gone, insect food and wild flowers almost vanished from many large scale farms.

People are trying to make their gardens more wildlife friendly by leaving areas uncut, planting native shrubs, providing a hedgehog house and food. So it is easy to see why hedgehogs are more numerous in gardens, but why are so many being found with problems?

As I look around our hedgehog cages there are several adults with injuries, but most of the juveniles were simply found in gardens.

Juvenile hedgehogs shouldn’t be wandering around in the daytime, unless something has happened to mum. Some of these hoglets are quite active and healthy, others have been struggling and are dehydrated and underweight. All are wormed and most treated with antibiotics.

When these hedgehogs weigh 700 grams, they will be released in gardens where people will provide food and shelter.

There will be access to other gardens and grassland, no steep sided pond and no netting trailing on the ground. We hope they will survive.