Hedgehog Aware

Each year many hedgehogs are injured or killed by strimmers and mowers, but there are things you can do to help: 

1. Always check areas with long grass and hedgerows for hedgehogs and their nests before strimming or mowing – they curl up and remain still when a potential danger is present, hence their vulnerability to injury from gardening equipment. 

2. Be aware of piles of leaves and twigs, or tunnels through undergrowth – these could be a hedgehog nest. 

3. If you find a nest or a hedgehog, leave it well alone, unless the hedgehog appears injured, in which case ring the Hedgehog Emergency Rescue Helpline 01584 890 801, or contact a local hedgehog rescue centre. 

4. Try to keep an area of your garden ‘wild’ for brambles, nettles, and long grass. 

5. Keep netting to a minimum, with no loose ends, and at least 1 foot from the ground to prevent hedgehogs getting tangled in it whilst travelling around gardens. 

Hedgehogs can travel anything up to 3km in one night! 

6. Make sure a garden pond has plenty of escape routes (sloping ramps) for hedgehogs to climb out of. 

7. Leave out plenty of shallow dishes of water, especially during warm, dry seasons. 

8. Stop using pesticides and slug pellets in the garden – these can be fatal to hedgehogs. 

Thank you for being ‘Hedgehog Aware’ and helping these vulnerable mammals survive and thrive. 

 

Hedgehog numbers have declined from 30 million, in the 1950s, to less than 1 million in 2018. 

At least 46% have been lost in the last 13 years, with half gone in rural areas. 

Reference: PTES (People’s Trust for Endangered Species, who run Hedgehog Street w/ the BHPS) 

 

Article written by Dylan at Hedgehog Aware. 

 

For more information visit https://hedgehogaware.org.uk/ 

 

Emergency Hedgehog Rescues: https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/ or call 01584 890 801