Creating a Hedgehog-Friendly Town

Aim

Suffolk Wildlife Trust is aiming to making Ipswich the UK's most hedgehog-friendly town and safeguard the future of the county's hedgehogs.

What we are going to do

We know hedgehogs are in trouble. A species celebrated in culture from Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle to Philip Larkin's poetry, is becoming an increasingly rare sight in the UK's gardens, parks and hedgerows. Research by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species suggests hedgehog numbers have declined by more than a third between 2003 and 2012. This is why Suffolk Wildlife Trust is taking action.

Creating a Hedgehog-Friendly Town is a two year initiative that will see the recruitment of a dedicated Hedgehog Officer to work with clusters of streets within Ipswich to create corridors of hedgehog-friendly gardens – allowing hedgehogs access through fences or under gates and providing small wild corners for them to shelter in all year round.

Hedgehog Champions from each neighbourhood will be trained to monitor and record hedgehog activity using hedgehog tunnels and wild-cams, and be involved in citizen science studies using mark/recapture and GPS. The data collected will drive the on-the-ground creation of Hedgehog Streets and establish a population baseline from which it will be possible to accurately monitor future change.

This pioneering project to make Ipswich the most hedgehog-friendly town in the UK will obviously benefit local wildlife and communities, but it will also test a new methodology to estimate hedgehog populations – something that will support national conservation initiatives.

The campaign has already been supported by generous donations from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the Heritage Lottery Fund, but your support is still needed to make a huge difference to the future of wildlife in Suffolk and the UK.

Be a part of Creating a Hedgehog-Friendly Town, and help us: 

• buy equipment to help us monitor the movements of hedgehogs
• train volunteers, including our Hedgehog Champions
• inspire whole communities to take action for wildlife
• build a bank of vital data on hedgehogs that will inform UK conservation

Click here for more information about this project and the work of Suffolk Wildlife Trust. 

This project successfully funded on 3rd August 2016