Emily and Marion, two dedicated volunteers, visited the whole school on Monday to talk about their work helping injured and poorly hedgehogs.  They are based at Frampton near Saul and last year helped over five hundred and fifty hedgehogs. 

Emily and Marion are passionate about raising awareness of hedgehogs and conservation for wildlife and we were delighted that they were able to come and share their knowledge.  They showed lots of lovely and informative photographs of tiny hoglets, fully grown adult hedgehogs and funny food loving hedgehogs and we learned that they need fresh water to drink and cat food to eat.  In the wild, the hedgehogs search for slugs, snails, worms and other bugs to eat and they depend more and more on our gardens to find their meals. 

The Wild Hogs Hedgehog Rescue centre do not bring sick and injured animals along to the talks because they can be easily stressed but Emily and Marion did bring ‘Bud’, their giant hedgehog friend!

At the end of the talk, Emily gave children an opportunity to ask questions.  The children showed their interest asking questions such as, ‘How can you contact the Rescue Centre?’, ‘What should I do if I find a hedgehog that needs help?’,  ‘How do you pick up an injured hedgehog?’.

What a brilliant start to our Woodchester Literature Festival which is all about endangered animals and conservation.  There was no charge for the visit and our visitors were very grateful for the donations of cat food for the hedgehogs. 

Thank you to Emily, Marion and Bud, and to everyone who was able to donate.  It was much appreciated.