On Friday 28th April, Margaret Regnault joined the Friday Breakfast team, to discuss the up-coming Hedgehog Awareness Week. Hedgehog numbers have been declining sharply, and the awareness week is an opportunity to consider how to help these unique mammals.This year, it runs from 30th April until 6th May.

Margaret gave advice and suggestions about how people can help hedgehogs by gardening in a wildlife-friendly way. Also people can make small holes in their garden fences, to enable hedgehogs to move between them. As an adult hedgehog can travel 2km a night, it is important they can move between neighbouring gardens.

The conversation with Margaret is available on MixCloud.

Further Information.

There are a number of organisations who care about hedgehogs and other wildlife. They all offer advice, support and guidance on how to help these nocturnal creatures. They include:

Hedgehog Street who “want to make sure the hedgehog, the UK’s only spiny mammal, remains a common and familiar part of British life.” They have a network of hedgehog champions who work in their local area. Champions make hedgehog homes and feeding stations, support hedgehog highways and encourage their neighbours to join in.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society is “dedicated to helping & protecting hedgehogs native to the UK (Erinaceus europaeus)”. They offer help and advice to those with sick, injured or orphaned hedgehogs, as well as holding a list of rehabilitators.

Peoples Trust for Endangered Species “fight for the future of the nation’s favourite animal”.  They aim to aim to save hedgehogs,by understanding them, and encourage people to make practical conservation efforts.

The Wildlife Trust state, “Together, our gardens are a vast living landscape. With an estimated 24 million gardens in the UK, the way they are cared for can make a big difference to the natural world”. They give advice on simple changes anybody can make, regardless of how big or small their garden is, to support wildlife.

Sightings of hedgehogs can be reported on the Big Hedgehog Map.

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