大象传媒

It's the middle of winter, and you'd think that most hedgehogs would be curled up asleep somewhere, waiting for the arrival of spring.

But the warmer winters are confusing the prickly creatures.

Some are having a second litter late in the year, which means there are lots of little hedgehogs that are too small to hibernate and too inexperienced to find food in the winter.

It's keeping staff busy at the Prickly Ball Hedgehog Hospital near Newton Abbot in South Devon.

Andrew Ward expect to be kept busy

They are looking after around 60 hedgehogs who are still wide awake in late December.

Andrew Ward, from the hospital, said: "The hedgehogs are staying awake longer, and because food is no longer available for them, it does mean we are losing a vast number of them."

One hedgehog that is being helped through the winter months is Pierre, who weighs just 220g.

Hedgehogs need to be about 600g to have the energy store essential for hibernation.

While some will not survive the winter months, Pierre is lucky - he's being fattened up and kept warm at the hospital until the spring, when he will be released.

Pierre enjoys a nice bowl of cat food

Bernie Ward, of the hospital, said: "Some of them are such wonderful characters and really, you don't like to see them going because they react so well with you.

"But on the other hand, we try not to get them too humanised because that won't help them when they're back in the wild."

The hospital is expecting more hedgehogs like Pierre over the winter months.

Andrew said: "At the moment, we've got about 40 hedgehogs inside and probably about another 20 outside - and we're not even in the middle of winter yet. So we do expect more."

If you find a wide awake hedgehog during the winter, the advice is that a bowl of cat or dog food and some water would go down a treat.