This video is called European hedgehog – Erinaceus europaeus.
Richard Witte van den Bosch of the Dutch mammal society writes about hedgehogs on Texel island.
On nearly all Wadden Sea islands in the Netherlands, hedgehogs do not occur naturally. However, during the twentieth century, they were introduced on most isles. Texel and Langeoog are the only two islands where the species is said to have lived already in the early twentieth century. Were they introduced there by humans before 1900? Or did they live on Texel already when it still was a part of the continent during the ice age? We are not sure yet.
Today, hedgehogs live mainly in the sand dunes of western Texel; and in the hilly center. They are very rare in eastern Texel, which is mainly low-lying farmland and marshes. However, there is tree and shrub cover near some farms. This might attract hedgehogs, but does not seem to do so. Are there really no hedgehogs there? Or are species distribution maps influenced by naturalists, who prefer looking for animals in nature reserves to trying to find them in seemingly less attractive surroundings?
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Texel dead fox was not an island dweller
Tuesday 16 February 2010
The dead fox found by a road on the Wadden Sea island of Texel was shot and probably dumped there as a joke, a spokesman for local animal sanctuary Ecomare said on Tuesday.
Foxes are not native to Texel and a fox population could pose a danger to rare birds on the island, biologists said after the find on Monday. There have been rumours of foxes on the island for over a year.
But x-rays show the fox was hit from close range by at least 40 pellets, which indicate it was killed in a cage and dumped there, Ecomare said. The organisation now assumes the fox was brought to the island from the mainland and dumped.
In 2008 the mysterious arrival of 10 red deer on the Wadden Sea island of Terschelling surprised and puzzled local biologists. The deer, who were all later shot dead, had apparently been smuggled to the island in horse trailers.
See also here.
Hedgehogs at home in gardens
Wildlife: Hedgehogs are regular visitors to a quarter of British gardens, according to an RSPB survey published on Wednesday.
And they are even making their way into towns and cities with sightings in a third of urban gardens, the wildlife survey found.
More than 90,000 nature-lovers took part in the RSPB’s Make Your Nature Count project.
They reported on their sightings of birds and mammals in nearly 70,000 gardens.
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