Ashley & Coby’s Excellent Adventure

Have you ever seen a hedgehog in the wild? If you aren’t from Europe, Asia, or Africa, the answer is likely no.

A few weeks ago, as we left the north parkade, Ashley and I came across grubby (and very grumpy) hedgehog. How he ended up there is a mystery, but because of our quick thinking he’s now safe and sound.

As we backed out of our parking spot, Ashley spotted a small creature under a nearby car. I jumped out of the moving car, left the door wide open, and ran toward it. By the time I got close, my brain caught up to my feet, and I hesitated for a moment wondering, ‘is this a hedgehog, or a baby porcupine?’ (I am clearly a city person.)

As I paused he ran under a nearby car.

Ashley and I spent the next few minutes crawling around on the pavement trying to coax Hedgie (as he shall forever be known) out from under the parked cars. Finally he toddled out, and I grabbed him.

Hedgehogs are much pricklier than I had imagined.

After struggling to hold onto him as he continued to squirm and poke me, we wrapped him in Ashley’s cardigan, put him in a small box, and then in a fabric bag to help him calm down and feel safe.

After several calls to various animal rescue groups throughout Vancouver,  we took Hedgie to the Animal ER where he was well cared for and later adopted.

Things we learned:

• Campus Security and UBC Lost & Found have never had anyone try to turn in a lost hedgehog before.
• The BCSPCA doesn’t know very much about hedgehogs. When we called them to see if we could take Hedgie there, we were told that we had just ‘rescued’ a wild animal. After a quick Google search, we confirmed that Hedgehogs are, in fact, NOT native to North America. Fortunately, we didn’t turn the car around and take Hedgie back to his parking lot habitat.
• Hedgehog spines are VERY pokey.
• Hedgehogs snort when they are unhappy.
• Rescuing Hedgie made us feel like superheroes.