Mild winter keeps hedgehogs awake

Press, 17 January 1989, Page 33

Mild winter keeps hedgehogs awake

NZPA-AAP London The hedgehogs can’t sleep, the frogs are confused, but the rats are having the time of their lives. Britain’s third mild winter in a row is playing havoc with nature’s biological clock, much to the fascination of the country’s army of amateur nature watchers dedicated to observing the passing of the seasons.

As temperatures have soared to over 10 deg., ‘hedgehogs have refused to hibernate and are winding up as unseasonal victims of cars on country lanes.

The matron of St Tiggywinkle Wildlife Hospital in Buckinghamshire spoke of a “crisis” as 100 distressed hedgehogs — twice the normal number in winter — packed out her wards. The reason for the mild weather is a band of high pressure that has remained round the south of England since November, cutting Britain off from

the colder weather on the Continent and, in recent weeks, pushing temperatures above those recorded in the Mediterranean.

While chilly by N.Z. standards, the weather is nowhere near as miserable as Britons are used to.

At this stage it is the mildest winter in' 40 years, although weatherwatchers predict winter could arrive in force at any moment. The balmy weather has led to frogs starting to spawn in streams that are normally frozen, crocuses blooming two months early and small birds failing to migrate, thinking spring has already arrived.

For companies that make a business out of cold weather the situation is depressing. With households needing less fuel to keep warm, firms selling coals and heating oil say sales have dropped by 15 per cent to 20 per cent on last year and sales of long

johns have also slumped. But Britain’s rat population and the pest control industry have thrived.

Health officers warn that the rat population has reached record levels as the breeding population has increased over a series of mild winters.

They fear that when cold weather does strike and the fields freeze over, the rats may invade farms and houses in rural areas in search of food.

“We’ve used literally bucketsful of bait, killing hundreds of rats, and still with no sigh of controlling them,” an environmental health officer in Shropshire, said. Sightings of rats have more than doubled in many areas, including the cities, where the rats are thriving in crumbling sewers.

In London’s Docklands redevelopment there is talk of "armies of rats on the move” as their traditional homes are disturbed.