Thirteen overwintered juvenile hedgehogs (six male, seven female) were
released in an area of farm land and gardens on Jersey, Channel Islan
ds. Six (three of each sex) were originally from the same area, the re
st came from other parts of the island. They were radio-tracked and mo
nitored regularly for 6 weeks to investigate survival and especially w
hether 'site-native' animals and those from elsewhere differed in resp
ect of their propensity to disperse widely following release. All anim
als survived at least 4 weeks and 10 were known to be alive after 6 we
eks. The fate of the others is unknown, but there is no reason to beli
eve that any of them suffered an early death. Male hedgehogs used new
nests more frequently than females. All remained within 400m of the re
lease point for at least a month, some were still within 200m 6 weeks
post-release. Five hedgehogs dispersed, travelling at least 400m from
the release point. Four of these were males, including one recaptured
5.2km away. Dispersal seemed to be more related to sex than origin. Al
l animals lost weight initially, but most stabilized after 2-3 weeks;
proportionately more weight was lost by larger animals. None was seen
to use supplementary food put out for them, despite weight losses, and
no aggressive interactions with wild conspecifics were noted. Despite
all the animals being naive juveniles, with little or no previous exp
erience of life in the wild, none were killed by road traffic. Positiv
e conclusions from previous studies concerning the success and welfare
implications of releasing hedgehogs after care in captivity are confi
rmed.