THIS year marks the 10th birthday of Hedgehog Street, a nationwide campaign launched by wildlife charities People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS).
Hedgehog Street aims to encourage people to become ‘Hedgehog Champions’ (volunteers who pledge to make their gardens more hedgehog friendly) in order to help stop the ongoing decline of Britain’s favourite mammal.
Now, to celebrate its 10th birthday this year, Hedgehog Street is asking members of the public to do 10 things to help hedgehogs throughout 2021, as listed below:
The ten ways to help are:
- Link your garden with Hedgehog Highways
- Create a wild corner
- Leave out food and water
- Make a home for hedgehogs
- Make ponds safe with a ramp
- Deal with litter and netting
- Stop using chemicals
- Check before strimming or mowing
- Take care with bonfires
- Spread the word with friends, family and neighbours
To add to the celebrations, a brand-new garden challenge is being launched this March.
This family friendly challenge aims to find out if the UK’s gardens are hedgehog havens, or if they’re in need of more hedgehog-friendly features in order to encourage more prickly nighttime visitors.
Results from this online quiz will offer tailored advice to those who take part, suggesting simple improvements based on the answers provided.
Grace Johnson, Hedgehog Officer for Hedgehog Street says: “We know how much people love hedgehogs, but also how much they’re in trouble.
“Gardens are a fantastic habitat for hedgehogs if they have the right features and are connected to neighbouring gardens and/or green spaces.
“Our new garden challenge will provide bespoke advice to everyone who takes part, so helping our native hedgehogs couldn’t be easier.
“We already have over 90,000 amazing Hedgehog Champions who have made their gardens hedgehog friendly, and hope in our birthday year we can make that 100,000!”
The latest State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report, published in 2018 by BHPS and PTES, revealed that 50per cent of rural hedgehog populations and 30per cent of urban hedgehog populations have been lost since 2000.
Most recently, hedgehogs were listed as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ on the Red List for Britain’s Mammals, published in 2020.
Several factors are contributing to this decline.
They are complex, and include tidy, fenced in gardens, busy roads in urban areas, habitat fragmentation, intensification of agriculture and increased pesticide use in rural areas.
Grace adds: “There is some good news for hedgehogs: our State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018 report indicated that the rate of decline in our towns and cities appears to be stabilising.
“That is why we’re really pushing for everyone to do 10 things for hedgehogs during our birthday year, to build on this positive step forward and to help save this beautiful and iconic species from further decline.”
To find out more, visit: www.hedgehogstreet.org/happy-birthday-to-us
