Why Are Hedgehogs Declining?

Over the next few weeks I aim to blog about questions like why are hedgehogs declining? These questions will be about recent topics.

The Hedgehog, a small, spiny mammal that is in a lot of trouble. It lives in gardens and parks around Britain and mainly eats a varied diet of invertebrates from Worms to Millipedes.

However they have suffered a severe decline over the last decade due to a number of factors. I have listed a few here:
  • Like many wildlife, loss of habitat has played a big role in their decline. Many of our green spaces have been lost due to houses etc being built.
  • Garden have become less accessible for the hedgehogs. With large fences in the way, they cannot travel between gardens to eat the right diet and find a safe place to hibernate.
  •  Roads. They kill many of our wildlife such as Deer, Badgers and Foxes. 15,000 Hedgehogs are killed each year, however they also act as barriers which can affect their local population.
In the 1950s it was estimated that there were 36.5 million in Britain, with the most recent estimate in 1995 being 1,550,00 million. Now recent mammal surveys have uncovered that we have lost 30% of the population since 2002.

                                                           What is being done about it?
  • The People's trust for endangered species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society are funding research to give much better advice to farmers and landowners about managing land for hedgehogs.
  • The People's trust for endangered species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society are helping to manage green spaces and parks.
                                                                     What can you do?
  • Create a hole in your fence. This will let Hedgehogs travel between gardens to give them a better chance of survival.
  • Make them a home. Leaf litter and logs will do it! Or if you prefer you can buy an artificial one.
  • Provide food. Put out food and fresh water like minced meat, tinned cat or dog food and crushed cats biscuits. However NEVER feed Hedgehogs milk as it can cause stomach problems.  



Comments

  1. Lepimann7 November 2015 at 08:39

    Thanks for your informative post. There is a problem with the population estimate.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lepimann7 November 2015 at 08:39

    Thanks for your informative post. There is a problem with the population estimate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mya the Birder7 November 2015 at 10:07

      Hi there, thanks for your comment. I found the information on population of hedgehogs from the Hedgehog street website.

      Delete

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