T here was a bloodied area some 8” x 4” inside the feeder [see LEFT] with confused footprints leading to/from the entrance. The entrance of the feeder is restriced to about 4” x 4”. Bloodied footprints went from the feeder to a drinker [see CENTRE] where there was a large pool of uncongealed blood c. 4” x 3”. Distance from the feeder to the drinker is c. 4 feet. From the drinker the footprints followed a route taken regularly by hedgehogs. The footprints were not very clear in outline, but a close-up of one of the clearer ones from the lintel is shown at RIGHT and is that of a hedgehog. Passing the drinker the tracks went for another 4 feet towards a vegetable midden contained at the time by concrete lintels.

T he footsteps mounted a lintel [LEFT] along which hedgehogs often take a short-cut before going through the midden and up steps leading up to a lawned area with flower-beds. On this occasion the footprints went straight along the whole length of the lintel without entering the midden. Descending from the end of the lintel onto the path another clearish footprint was photographed [CENTRE]. Mounting the steps [RIGHT] the footprints ascended to the upper garden area. In the image at right the bottom step is to the right. From bottom to top of the steps is about 4 feet. Adult hedgehogs ascend quite easily and rapidly, juveniles less so. Descent is a more hesitant affair, often with dithering at the lip of each step. The progress of bloody imprints indicated steady ascent without pausing.

A fter ascending the steps there were footprints on a couple of inset paving stones before the trail led over recently mown grass and following the right hand edge of a circular patio, then a further clear trail of prints on stones and across more grass towards a shed. Turning westward the trail continued over a tin tray [at LEFT] and across more grass. Distance from the top of the steps to the patio is c. 8 feet; the tracks across the patio another 4 feet, and from there to the tin tray c. 6 feet. Thereafter the route lay over grass. Progress seemed to have paused briefly, judging by a somewhat scattered area of uncongealed blood [CENTRE] on which ants were observed feeding, before the trail continued to its terminus under a garden seat, where there was a considerable quantity of fresh blood [RIGHT]. My assumption at the time was that if the blood had only been recently shed - at say 5 or 6 a.m., the ants had not discovered all of it at the time of my initial discovery which would tend to support a ‘late’ time i.e. early morning for whatever happened. This turned out to be incorrect. The injury, however caused, almost certainly ocurred between 23:24 and 23:26 the previous night. See THE NEXT PAGE .