A ROSYTH charity has come to the aid of more than 200 hedgehogs in the past 12 months.

Nadia Al-Dujaili, who runs the Forth Hedgehog Hospital, said the year had been a busy one with a high numbers of hedgehogs brought in.

"Things have calmed down a bit now," she said. "I was run off my feet during the summer. I have had 232 hedgehogs in this year. That is how many have come through my doors – that is not how many survived unfortunately.

"Normally, about 65 to 70 per cent go back to the wild."

With many hedgehogs hibernating, the hospital is currently experiencing a quieter time.

Nadia continued: "Because it has been so cold, they have gone into hibernation in the wild so I have had a lot less calls which is normal at this time of the year.

"The ones I have in the hospital are underweight ones. They have been found during the day wandering about because they have been underweight and distressed and got confused and disorientated.

"They cannot cope because there is no food for them. I have got about 19 in just now. It is still quite busy but we had about 500-odd in during the summer."

Recent flooding in Rosyth has caused issues for Nadia and her efforts, however, a new shed on stilts has managed to avert major disaster.

"The hedgehog hospital was flooded out again," she explained. "All of them had to be shipped over to the house, some had to go to another shed. I had a new shed built on stilts at the very bottom of the garden which survived the flood because it was built up to cope with all the floods.

"It did its job. It was worth the extra pennies."

Dunfermline and West Fife MP Douglas Chapman visited the the charity recently to find out about its work and hear about the issues caused by the flooding.

His team are set to provide advice to Nadia about available grants which could help her efforts.

Anyone wanting to donate to help can find details of current crowdfunder appeals on the Forth Hedgehog Hospital's Facebook page.