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Hedgehog Research
Alice Lambert, Ulva Ferry, Mull, board member, Scottish Natural
Heritage.
Oban Times, Letters
23 January 2003
Sir,
In response to the letter by Pat Blunsden of
Small Paws Catery, the scientific research I referred to in my letter
was not carried out or commissioned by Scottish Natural Heritage.
The reference is to a study carried out by C Patrick
Doncaster of the AFRC unit of Ecology and Behaviour, Department
of Zoology, University of Oxford.
The study showed that populations of hedgehogs
artificially lowered or raised returned within a month to six weeks
to their original density because those numbers were controlled
already by the variables of natural life, such as the predation
and food.
In a lowered population of healthy animals there
are always ‘extra’ young hedgehogs to fill the spaces
and these would naturally perish if no space was found.
Alice Lambert, Ulva Ferry, Mull, board member,
Scottish Natural Heritage.
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