A hopeful 'Spike' in numbers

TAKE PART IN HEDGEHOG AWARENESS WEEK 3rd - 9th MAY 2020

Did you know that hedgehogs are distant relatives of shrews, have around 6,000 spines and have changed little in the past 15 million years?

Hedgehog's are in decline and need our help - it's thought that the UK's population has dropped from around 30 million fifty years ago, to a mere 1 million today. Hedgehog Awareness Week (running from 3rd - 9th May 2020) and organised by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), is a way of bringing attention to the problems they face and how we can help them.

As well as working with our neighbours to help reverse habitat fragmentation by ensuring they have connected areas and creating hedgehog friendly features in the garden, you could become a Hedgehog Champion for your area. Here's a list of practical things they recommend which we can all do to help maintain and increase the current populations:-

* Create a log pile that will offer shelter and food

* Build a Hedgehog Home

* Move piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it

* Check areas carefully before mowing or strimming

* Ensure netting is kept at a safe height

* Check compost heaps before digging the fork in

* Stop using pesticides and poisons

* Cover drains or deep holes

* Ensure there is an easy route out of ponds & pools

* Sign their petition to make sure new housing developments include 'hedgehog highways' - a 13 cm hole in the bottom of a fence that allows hedgehogs to move freely between gardens to find food and find a mate.

For more information on all of the above please visit their website