A NEW calendar has been launched to celebrate all the little prickly patients at Wiltshire Wildlife Hospital.

The centre in Newton Tony which is run by Mike and Marilyn Korkis, and a host of volunteers, looks after more than 100 hedgehogs, treating them for poor health and injuries, cleaning them out and feeding them at regular times throughout the day and night.

Now one of the volunteers has produced a fundraising calendar for the hospital.

Lizz Fitt started volunteering in July after coming back from working on a marine conservation project in Borneo.

She said: “Realising how many hedgehogs were coming in – needing care, food and accommodation, sometimes for months and months – was a bit of a shock.

“I had no idea they were even in decline or how much effort and money it takes to look after them.

“I was trying to work out a way I could help a bit more than mucking out.

“Marilyn said that they had had an idea for a calendar before, but that producing and marketing it was all a bit daunting on top of the 24/7 job of looking after so much wildlife.

“I’m a photographer, so the obvious way seemed to be to see if the hoggles themselves might like to work for their keep, and make a calendar.

“I was slightly unprepared for what this would actually involve, but I’ve really learned a lot about hedgehogs and their personalities.

“Chiefly that they can be total divas.

“I’ve never seen such mischievous antics – half the time they tried to eat the set and they definitely had their own ideas about how to interact with the props, which were sometimes better than mine, so I just left them to it.

“I also totally fell in love – they’re just so adorable, even when they are really naughty.

“The making of this calendar involved so much laughter, I really hope that shows a bit in the pictures.”

The calendar is £9 with £1.50 for postage and packing. All proceeds go to the wildlife hospital with each one paying for the upkeep of a hedgehog for one month.

To see more photos or to buy a calendar visit wildthingsres-q.org.uk

Lizz hopes to sell 500 calendars because it would feed and house all the hedgehogs so far at the hospital until they are released in the spring.