What a prickly problem: Now 57% of us never see a hedgehog

HEDGEHOG sightings have continued to fall, with the population in Britain plummeting since the turn of the century.

For the second year running, sightings dropped – with almost six in ten people not seeing a hedgehog last year. And only 9 per cent spotted one at their homes, the annual survey by BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine found.

It follows warnings of a hedgehog crisis, with their numbers having halved to 750,000 since 1995. The spread of farmland is thought to be forcing the animals out of the hedges and copses they rely on for nesting. In 2016, 51 per cent of Britons said they had not seen a hedgehog, which rose to 57 per cent last year.

Kevin Smith, BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine deputy editor, said: ‘It’s alarming to see numbers of our cherished hedgehogs continuing to decline, as they’re such a vital part of any healthy garden and, more widely, our ecosystem.’ But with greater awareness of hedgehogs’ plight, Mr Smith said gardeners were taking steps to help save them such as reducing slug pellet use, which can damage their reproduction.

The animals are declining less rapidly in urban areas than the countryside and even returning in some cities.