Hello, humble hedgehog

IT says something about a growing interest in nature and environmental matters when close to 200 people of all ages turn out on a winter’s night for a talk about the humble hedgehog.

But then, Amy Haigh, one of the country’s leading experts on the spiky creature, was the person at the podium in the Killarney Plaza Hotel. She has even earned a doctorate on the hedgehog. Her research involved spending long nights over several months, spread over three to four years, observing hedgehogs on farmland, near Bandon, Co Cork. Hedgehogs are active from dusk to dawn and Amy soon became familiar with their ways.

You can have hedgehogs in the garden without knowing it. For a while, I wondered why the dog used to become agitated at night at certain times of the year, but eventually discovered he was barking at hedgehogs.