Mammals of Doddington Wood
Hedgehogs
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Hedgehogs are Britain’s only spiky mammal. An adult will have roughly 6000 spines that are made of keratin (like our hair and nails). The spines are creamy brown in colour.
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Hedgehogs have four legs and they can run quite fast. They have a small tail.
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If a hedgehog feels threatened it will curl into a ball shape until the danger has passed.
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Hedgehogs are nocturnal (sleep during the day). They tend to come out at night. Due to this they have poor eyesight and rely on their sense of smell and hearing.
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Hedgehogs like to eat worms, slugs, beetles, earwigs etc. They are sometimes called the gardeners friend due to this.
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Wild hedgehogs live two to five years.
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Baby hedgehogs are called hoglets.
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You can help hedgehogs if you have a garden by leaving out water, calcium worms and dry kitten food. You can make or cut a hole in your fence to make it easy for hedgehogs to visit your garden. This is often called a hedgehog highway as it allows hedgehogs to come and go in your garden. Please do not feed hedgehogs milk, as it makes them poorly as they are lactose intolerant.
Bats
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Bats are nocturnal (sleep during day) mammals that can be seen on warm summer evenings. They fly 2 to 10 metres above the ground searching for food that they eat mid flight.
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Cramlington has common pipistrelle bats. They weigh five grams which is roughly the same as a 20 pence coin. Their wingspan is 20 to 30 cms. They are dark brown in colour. A single pipistrelle bat can eat up to 3000 small insects in one night. They eat small flies and midges.
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Bats like to live in roofs/eves and tree holes or bat boxes.
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Bats hibernate during the winter.
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Baby bats are called pups.
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Bats live for four to five years.
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Seven Oaks Park in Cramlington has pipistrelle bats and you can see them flying on warm summer evenings. If you have a garden you can sometimes see bats flying on warm summer evenings chasing flies.