Helping Hedgehogs Thrive Again

Aim

In the last 20 years, hedgehog numbers have dropped by a third in urban areas and by half in rural areas. We must help save hedgehogs.

At People's Trust for Endangered Species, we're working really hard to protect hedgehogs from dying out. Through our research and mammal spotting surveys, in 2011 we found out that hedgehogs, one of the nation’s favourite animals, were declining in Britain at the same rate as tigers worldwide. 

Hedgehogs are an absolute priority for us. With funding from our wonderful supporters, we’ve committed ourselves to fighting the hedgehog decline. We fund research into the hedgehog population decline and along with our partner The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), we launched Hedgehog Street, the largest hedgehog conservation project in the UK. In the last ten years we've accomplished so much for hedgehogs. We are:

• recruiting more Hedgehog Champions to take action for hogs. We have 121,000 champions, but need even more
• working with housing developers to create hedgehog-friendly new-builds
• investigating why rural hedgehogs are declining so fast
• tracking where hedgehogs are spotted and where gardens are connected
• determining which garden features hedgehogs prefer so champions can create hedgehog-friendly gardens
• consulting with politicians about increasing the legal protection of hedgehogs.

This is great progress, and we’re starting to see positive outcomes. But there’s so much more that needs to be done. We want to set up a national monitoring scheme for hedgehogs. Thousands of hedgehog sightings are logged on Hedgehog Street's BIG Hedgehog Map, but we need to know more such as abundance of hedgehogs in different habitats, and presence or absence. This will also determine how effective conservation measures are. 

We also want Hedgehog Street to reach even more people, so that future generations still have hedgehogs regularly visiting their gardens. We know the situation for hedgehogs can’t be improved overnight, but with hard work, active public involvement and support of people like you, we will make a difference.

This project successfully funded on 11th May 2023