REALITY CHECK
Hedgehog numbers have sharply declined in the last two decades. Are they at risk of disappearing from the UK forever?
The science behind the headlines. This month:
Are hedgehogs going extinct in the UK? Forget about the R value, the K number is the one that can help us understand the coronavirus. How do we count the number of COVID-19 deaths?
News stories about endangered wildlife have become sadly familiar, with many biologists now saying we are living through the planet’s sixth mass extinction because of the rate at which species are disappearing due to human activity. Recently, it was the hedgehog’s turn to make headlines. Having been assessed as vulnerable to extinction in the UK, the prickly insect-muncher was added to the Red List of Britain’s mammals, one of many official inventories of at risM species prodWced D[ the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Fortunately for the hedgehog, there is plenty we can still do to help.
COULD THE HEDGEHOG GO EXTINCT?
Unlikely. Conservationists working for the IUCN determine each species’ threat level according to
specific criteria, and at the moment the 'Wropean hedgehog, Erinaceus europaeus, is not endangered (in danger of vanishing in the wild). In parts of its huge range, which stretches east to forests around Moscow and south to the olive groves of the Mediterranean, it remains locally common.
But the species faces a growing number of severe threats. A 2018 report by the People’s Trust for
'ndangered 5pecies and the $ritish *edgehog 2reservation 5ociet[ estimated that over half of the
hedgehogs in rural Britain, and a third of the urban
ones, have gone since alone. 5Wch is the speed
of this population decline, that the species meets the threshold for ‘Vulnerable’ status in the UK.
WHAT ARE THE MAIN THREATS?
#gricWltWral intensification since 99++ has
transformed vast swathes of land, removing the npatchYorM SWilto of hedges, Yoods and small fields
in which hedgehogs thrive, and replacing it with huge, unvarying monocultures of cereal crops or chemically improved pasture. Insect numbers have crashed due to pesticide use, depriving hedgehogs of prey. Meanwhile, contemporary garden design does them no favoWrs. &ecMing, patios, artificial
turf, planters and a general obsession with tidiness in our manicured outdoor spaces – some conservationists Yr[l[ refer to this trend as '6&,
or ‘ecological tidiness disorder’ – leave them without enough food and shelter. Another major cause of mortality is roadkill. A recent study by researchers at Nottingham Trent University suggested that up to 335,000 hedgehogs die on UK roads every year.
HOW CAN I MAKE MY GARDEN HOG-FRIENDLY?
The dramatic changes in farming practices mean that urban green space provides an increasingly important refuge for these charismatic creatures. You can help by gardening in a more hog-friendly way. Allow your lawn to grow longer (apart from being less work, it will also be more resilient to droWght , let ƃoYerDeds Decome messier, leave fallen leaves where they are and uncover any compost heaps (fertile foraging grounds for hedgehogs). Avoid using lawn feeds, weedkillers and slug pellets: the wilder and more natural your garden, the better. If you have a pond, add some stones or a ramp at the edge so hedgehogs can drink safely. Many custom-made hedgehog homes or ‘hogitats’ are now available, designed to accommodate their winter hibernation, but steer clear of anything expensive or twee. A pile of dry leaves, moss, straw and sticks under bushes in a quiet part of the garden can be equally effective.
WHAT DO THEY EAT?
Hunting mainly by smell, hedgehogs sniff out a wide range of invertebrate prey, from beetles and bugs to earwigs, woodlice, earthworms, millipedes, slugs, snails and various insect larvae. They love caterpillars and the larvae of
craneƃies dadd[ longlegs), which burrow in soil. Given the chance, hedgehogs will
snafƃe Dirdso eggs
“A 2018 report estimated that over half of the hedgehogs in rural Britain, and a third of the urban ones, have gone since 2000 alone”