"The Same Thing Every Year": Hedgehog Rescuers Urge Czechs to Stop Picking Up "Orphans"

Wildlife rescue stations in Plzeň and Rokycany are sounding the alarm: people are picking up healthy baby hedgehogs en masse, mistaking them for orphans, and in doing so are harming the animals rather than helping them. In August alone, the Plzeň station fielded at least forty calls from people asking to bring in a little "foundling," a lone baby hedgehog, or even an entire nest of them.

"It happens year after year," says Karel Makoň, a staff member at the Plzeň animal rescue station. "In four out of five cases, human intervention disrupts the natural development of a wild animal that doesn't need our help at all."

The Situation Keeps Getting Worse

His colleague in Rokycany, Pavel Moulis, shares the same view. He says that every year specialists at the station try to explain to people that baby hedgehogs should simply be left alone, yet instead of improving, the situation only gets worse. "We tell them: don't bring them in, it's unnecessary. But they bring them in anyway — and even come up with touching stories about why this particular hedgehog needs our care," Moulis notes.

Many people are thrown off by the fact that hedgehogs can now be spotted wandering through gardens or along pavements even in broad daylight. "They're no longer strictly nocturnal creatures," Moulis explains. "They're changing their habits — and they're not the only ones: some migratory birds no longer fly south for the winter, wild animals are settling in cities instead of forests, and certain nocturnal species are now visible during the day too."

Costly Overcaution

"He's small, skinny, he definitely won't survive the winter. Come and get him" — rescuers have developed a genuine allergy to calls like this. "These days everyone thinks they're an expert, social media is flooded with this kind of advice," Karel Makoň remarks. "It's good that people care, of course. But in the end it doesn't help the hedgehogs or nature — and nobody counts how much time and money this so-called 'good deed' actually costs."

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz