PEOPLE have been urged to look out for baby hedgehogs this autumn.
The dry and reasonably warm autumn has led to a lot of hedgehogs being born.
But they are now at great risk of dying from hypothermia or scurrying into bonfires for shelter.
A tiny baby hedgehog was found by Maureen Beaumont in the garden of her home at Lower Grange in Bradley.
She has nicknamed him Oggie and he now sleeps all day in a box inside the house.
Maureen - who lives with husband Alan and 21-year- old son, Adam - said: "I was washing up and saw this tiny hedgehog waddling from side to side.
"I went out to try to catch it, but it escaped under a large fence."
She rang the Hedgehog Rescue Centre in Flockton and was told the waddle meant the hedgehog was probably suffering from hypothermia.
Maureen was determined to catch it and finally did so in the early hours of the morning, helped by Adam.
Oggie only weighs six ounces and he will be let back into the wild when he tips the scales at a pound and a half.
Maureen is now building him up by feeding him chicken-based cat food every night.
"Oggie is awake all night but is too small to get out of the box," she said.
"I've never seen a baby hedgehog at this time of year before. It's so sad that many must be dying from the cold and I'd urge people to look out for them.
"There's also the danger they could be living in the rubbish now being built up into bonfires."
Debbie James, of Flockton Hedgehog Rescue, said baby hedgehogs leave their nests at eight weeks old and then try to fatten themselves up ready to hibernate in the winter.
If they don't double their body weight up to a pound and a half, they will go to sleep in the winter and never wake up.
She added: "I've got 37 hedgehogs I'm trying to fatten up. Some will be with me through to the spring now."
She said the warm early autumn meant hedgehogs had carried on breeding later than normal.
She appealed to people to carefully check bonfires before setting them alight.
