Why hedgehogs love city living

THE secret life of urban hedgehogs has been revealed in a study that shows they thrive as well in cities as they do in the countryside provided there are sufficient gardens and parks.

To investigate how they are coping with increasing urbanisation, researchers fitted a number of hedgehogs with temperature-sensitive transmitters.

These allowed the scientists to track their movements and monitor hibernation patterns, winter nesting habits and the territory over which the animals roamed.

Urban hedgehogs turned out to be surprisingly good at adapting to city life.

‘ We found that urban hedgehogs had much smaller nightly ranging areas than their rural counterparts – five hectares verses 50 – and that they adjusted their activity to levels of human disturbance,’ said lead scientist Dr Lisa Warnecke.

The hedgehogs mainly stayed in private gardens by day, and ventured out to deserted local parks at night to forage and look for mates.

Unexpectedly, their hibernation patterns were found to be no different from those of their country counterparts.

During winter, both urban and rural hedgehogs entered a ‘torpor’ state in which they dramatically lowered their metabolic rate and body temperature to save energy.

The German researchers found this interesting because while rural hedgehogs’ food supplies were affected by winter, those in cities still had access to plenty, for example leftovers from human meals or pet food placed outside. Unlike those in the countryside, city hedgehogs often chose to nest next to busy roads.

The German researchers’ findings, presented at the Society for Experimental Biology’s annual meeting in Brighton, highlighted the role of private gardens and parks.

Dr Warnecke, from the University of Hamburg, said: ‘Gardens and public parks are very important for city hedgehogs.

‘They need gardens with natural vegetation and public parks less immaculately pruned, with plenty of natural, bushy areas.’

People living in cities should take care to avoid disturbing nesting hedgehogs and to keep their gardens free of anything that might cause them harm, she added.

The main problems they faced were injuries from fences, plant netting and gardening tools, as well as sickness caused by rat poison.