Ophelia went the whole hog

STANDING in the garden the other evening to survey the aftermath of Ophelia, a line from a Led Zeppelin song came to mind: “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now…” A rustling under a pile of wind-blown leaves drew my attention – only to discover a perfect hedgehog specimen staring up at me. After the climactic drama of the past week, it made for a welcome vision of Beatrix Potter’s Mrs Tiggy-Winkle – especially amidst the broken branches and slaughtered shrubs of the hurricane. Regarding me with as much unhurried curiosity as I had for him, our dusk encounter was one of the high points in an otherwise forgettable week. However, like bees, hedgehogs have been having a rough time of it lately – a result of modern pesticides and a declining insect population. Research by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds estimates that 60pc of wildlife species have declined over the last 50 years, with the hedgehog – Erinaceous Europaeus – joining the hazel dormouse, water voles, red squirrels and horseshoe bats on the endangered list.

Bev Truss runs the Hogsprickle Wildlife Rescue Centre in Co Clare, where hundreds of the creatures have been saved over the past decade. “Their threat of extinction has grown through people using weed killer and pesticides willy-nilly in their gardens. The hedgehog is dying out quicker than the tiger.”

Cattle grids are another menace confronting these near-sighted nocturnal creatures, according to Gillian Bird of the DSPCA. “They fall between the bars and can’t get out, and then drown when it fills up with rain. Building a small ramp within the grid during construction would be a huge help.”

Hedgehogs are the best friend a garden can have, she says. The prickly creatures dine with relish on slugs and snails – those scourges of any rose grower. “They are the most effective way of keeping balance in the garden, just as Mother Nature intended.”