Hibernation, half hibernation and just torpidity and laziness. There is a Tortoise Trust in England, and it wrote to this newspaper explaining what the winter had done to these pets and what action should be taken. Apparently, many hibernating tortoises suffered frost damage, in that their eyes froze, and may lead to total blindness. If you keep a tortoise, you should consult your vet at once, for such damage, the letter says, is often not diagnosed until too late.
The Trust is worried, too, about the many juvenile tortoises, bought as Christmas presents, and not accompanied by advice on the husbandry, as the letter puts it, of keeping the creatures. Most, it says, are unlikely to survive without special attention. You can get information, packs, free, but stamped addressed envelope needed. Not so easy, as the address is Tortoise Trust, BM Tortoise, London WC1N 3XX.
And what about wild creatures hibernating. Hedgehogs, for example. Fairley tells us that if the animal does not reach a certain minimum weight in autumn, it cannot survive hibernation. Needs more storage fat. So it has to go on to forage "against all the odds, and perish. " This happens especially to late litters. Are they as numerous today as they should be? One small area on the Dodder used to have an abundance of hedgehogs and shrews. No more. Possibly because of the deadly killer instinct of a couple of Siamese cats, in the case of the shrews, and dogs worrying the poor hedgies.
Incidentally Fairley quotes Dr Rutty who, writing in 1724 said that hedgehog "is good food and said to be scarce inferior to the rabbit." As to squirrels (the gray ones) they are as active at the bird feeders in midwinter as at any other time. Badgers get cautious in winter. Don't forage so far from the family home. But they still come to their suburban nightly supply, one or two at a time, instead of four, five or six.