2 weeks Ago By Pravina-rudra
The beginning of November is rarely a good time for hedgehogs . They start searching for hibernation spots and the unlit bonfires across the country seem perfect for their winter needs. Perfect, that is, until 5 November, when the bonfires are lit and the poor creatures are often burned alive .
This November, the hedgehogs’ plight is the grimmest it has ever been: they’ve been listed as “near threatened” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list after their numbers dived by at least 30 per cent over the past decade. This means they’re being pushed towards extinction . The news will capture people’s attention more than some extinction threats because many of us fell in love with these animals during our childhood, thanks to characters like Mrs Tiggy-Winkle by Beatrix Potter.
With sweet eyes, tiny snouts and ears, their cute faces seem to smile at us and their spines naturally enchant us. What other animal can be so prickly and cuddly at the same time? They potter along in life so cutely and gently, it’s no surprise that people love them so much. But it’s people who are pushing them to the cliff-edge of annihilation.
The heartless march of intensive agriculture is destroying their habitats in rural areas. Hedgerows are ideal nesting sites for hedgehogs – the clue is in the name – but there’s been around a 50 per cent decline in hedgerows in rural Britain since 1945 . The growing use of pesticides, herbicides and rodenticides is also wiping out large numbers of hedgehogs, by either killing the insects that they eat, or poisoning them directly.
Hedgehogs need to be able to move freely through well-connected habitats to find food, mates and areas to nest, so the building of so many new roads has also been very bad news for them. Roads disrupt their natural movement corridors and more roads also means more hedgehogs are being run over by cars and other vehicles. Hedgehogs are particularly vulnerable to being run over because when they’re scared, their natural instinct is not to run away, but to roll up into a ball and not move.
We see hedgehogs less and less these days and when we do see them, it’s often after they’ve been pancaked on a road. The better news is that if you want to keep seeing hedgehogs, there are things you can do to help. They start close to home: you can make your garden more friendly for hedgehogs by leaving small gaps in fences to allow hedgehogs to move between yards and by not using pesticides.
You can build shelters with log piles or even hedgehog houses. Read Next How a dead hedge in your garden could be a haven for wildlife this winter Hedgehogs are nocturnal so if you see one during the day it probably means their nest has been disturbed or they’re struggling to find food, particularly during dry weather. It can also be a sign that they are sick or injured, in which case it’s best to take them to a vet.
If you see a road sign asking you to slow down while you pass a hedgehog area then take your foot off the gas a bit. If you’re building a bonfire, do it as close to the big night as possible and then carefully search the bonfire with a torch and rake before you light it. Hedgehogs are facing the ultimate fate: extinction.
To pull them back from the abyss, we need to recognise the fundamental importance of biodiversity and how we all depend on an ecology of natural habitats and species. Otherwise, future generations will wonder what happened to the hedgehogs they can only see in books, and how we let it happen to them..
