Are hedgehogs disappearing???

[Wolfie]

The People’s Trust for Endangered Species & the British Hedgehog Preservation Society are carrying out a survey to find out if hedgehogs are becoming more scarce

"To do this we need thousands of you to tell us about hedgehogs you’ve seen so that we can build a map of where they are found in the UK. Letting us know that you haven’t seen hedgehogs is just as important as letting us know that you have!"

All you have to do is go to www.hogwatch.org.uk and answer 3 simple questions.

 

[jdlenton]

done good idea that survey

James

 

[rich59]

Thanks for the link. I had heard about it on the radio but could not find the web site.

 

[andy_scouser]

Im over run with them here (i am lucky as we have loads of wild life in the garden), as I was in my last house. I can't go out at night with out being deafened by the rustling and sniffing. They are a PITA when they decide to raid the bin bags though, but nice to watch all the same.

 

[JonathanD]

They are definately more scarce that about 20 years back. Whilst I was at college I used to run a wildlife rescue service with the help of my local vet. He used to receive at least one a fortnight from people who had found them in the gutter or elsewhere. I recently saw him out in the village and he recognised me, which sent us reminiscing about the 'good old days'. He now only gets two hedghogs, at most, per year. That either says they are declining rapidly, or us human people just don't care anymore and leave them in the gutter. Probably a bit of both unfortunately

 

[laurens ch]

I could count the number of hedgehogs ive seen on one hand.sad to think of them dissapearing

 

[Wolfie]

Sad to say the only time most people see a hedgehog is when it has been squashed on the road

I'm lucky in that I quite often see them on my front garden and there is quite a lot of evidence of them on the sand dunes at Merthyr Mawr

 

[JonathanD]

... and they do make good eating

 

[andy_scouser]

... and they do make good eating

When tidying around in the garden during autumn, we always leave piles of leaves and ensure we stack the fallen branches/logs in organised piles, in fact I hae left a good half of the garden to wild life.... Easy to do if you have the opportunity and provides an environment for the wild life. You get back what you put in. I have wood peckers, bats, tawny owls even the odd rabbit in th back garden... its nice to watch.

 

[Longstrider]

Survey completed. I often see these little chaps out and about whilst lamping rabbits at night, but it has to be said that they do seem to be becoming more scarce.

The "best" hedgehog sighting I ever had was whilst on a Security parol in the grounds of a historical country estate one night a few years ago. Creeping around the place in the van I guess I was doing more wildlife watching than anything else, and as I peered into the darkness I saw a hedgehog wearing a red bowler hat pottering along the verge. I did a "double take", thinking that I must be hallucinating, but there he was, happy as can be, wearing a little red plastic bowler hat! *LOL* I jumped out of the van and caught him and removed the hat before setting him on his way again, but I was in fits of laughter. The hat was one of those silly little plastic party hats with a piece of thin elastic to hold it on. I guessed that the hedgehog had either bumbled into it and become caught in the elastic by chance after it had been dropped in someones garden, or some drunken party-goer had seen the hedgehog as too good an oprtunity for a giggle to miss. Either way, it gave me the best laugh I'd had for ages at the time, but I was glad to have been able to catch him and rid him of the thing.