WITH the weather - hopefully - beginning to take on a feel of spring after a bitterly cold few weeks, one of Britain's favourite mammals, the hedgehog, will be coming out of winter hibernation any day now.

And after its long winter sleep, it will be urgent need of a spring tonic to help it through the first few days and weeks, says the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

The animals will have lost most of their fat reserves and if the ground remains hard after recent frosts, they will have difficulty in searching for their normal prey which includes - much to gardeners' delight - slugs and snails.

The society is urging gardeners who have regular hedgehog visitors to leave out some dog or cat food overnight and to be particularly vigilant when mowing grass or strimming for the first time: lazier members of the species might be still asleep in clumps of dead vegetation.