Hedgehog rescued from a pipe the size of a teacup by the Hampshire Hedgehog Rescue Collective

Hampshire Hedgehog Rescue Collective were called to an emergency rescue on October 23, after a man had spotted a tiny hedgehog wedged down a pipe that went underground, and had dangerous wires within.

The team rushed out to try and retrieve the prickly creature, and attended the site in Whiteley with a number of tools that were expected to help him, but due to the small size of the pipe, they were unsuccessful.

It was only until one of the team, who had considerably small hands, decided to try and prize the animal out of his tricky situation which proved a triumphant move.

The young male hedgehog, which has now been named Piper, weighs 210 grams, and has been taken to Elaine Gardener, who is part of the hedgehog team, to run tests to ensure he has no infections.

Elaine, 38, started volunteering for the charity in 2019 and has a passion for helping to look after the spiky animals as they are found, and she is currently nursing Piper the hedgehog back to health before releasing him back into the wild.

The charity has recently teamed up with a number of hedgehog rescues across Hampshire and Southampton.

She said: ‘ We are very busy, but it is not good now we are working as a team which means we can work together to work on the calls coming in.

‘He was quite a little one, so he was probably just getting up to mischief.

‘One of the main messages the rescue would like to share is for people to try and keep drains covered or if you are filling a deep hole, make sure that you check that there are no hedgehogs down there first.’

Everyone that works alongside the charity are volunteers and many of them have full time jobs as well as caring for hedgehogs.

The team have noticed an increase of hedgehogs needing help after finding themselves stuck in peculiar places, and have a team that are on call to assist them out of a tricky spot.