British Wildlife

[weaselett]

One of the jobs at the moment is checking for hedgehogs/random cats before releasing the hounds into the garden......

I opened the door, and discovered the patio covered in blood and bits of something else - five minutes of poking, I discovered that the bits were the remnants of worms (I was concerned I had somehow missed the dogs up to something earlier....though how I would have missed THAT I have no idea but I honestly did not think worms bleed? I've never seen a worm bleed, but apparently, they have red blood, go figure o.o)

Apparently the hedgehog decided to massacre 18 worms on the patio, mere feet away from the unlocked cat flap......which given the crazed charge around the garden by the hounds, was at least partly witnessed by them *face palms*

Comments

[giallarhorn]

Huh, I would've thought that worms have green blood, not red. That'd be a slightly alarming thing to walk out to.

On the other hand, I never knew the UK had hedgehogs- I always thought they were mainland European based.

[weaselett]

I wasn't even sure they bled, so I have now learned *face palm*

Yup we have hedgehogs (and many books and such written about them - and I blame Dick King Smith for the fact that verbally I always call them hedgepigs) - only bit of the uk they aren't native to are some of the islands - they are oddly loud, and sometimes v grumpy beasts, though sadly they are often a victim of the roads

[giallarhorn]

But now you know in the future that if you find red blood spatters in the garden, it may just be earthworms!

Hedgepigs, ha. Given the size of the animals, they're louder than expected and not entirely friendly.

[weaselett]

Yup :)

You can hear them come through gaps in the fence as their spikes all catch (hedgepig music!) - the bro had the most unfriendly regular hedgepig at his partner's (it used to rattle and spit and hiss at him) - they are small but mighty