Taken at night in my garden - Fuji FinePix 2800Zoom
Sethlong (Tswana for Hedgehog) has become a regular visit to my garden. Since her first visit a couple of years ago, she came regularly for meal worms and any other snacks I put down, sometimes staying for weeks on end. Until eventually I noticed one winter that she was hibernating near my wildlife pond, upon which I fenced the area (very large, approx. 20m long and 8m wide) and she has been with me ever since.
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The Southern African Hedgehog (Atelerix frontalis) is a species of mammal in the family Erinaceidae. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The average mass of a fully grown male is 350g, but Sethlong weighed in at over 400g. The females are larger than the males and all African Hedgehogs have white faces as compared to the European Hedgehog, which has a black face.