Warning signs aim to protect our hedgehogs
HEDGEHOG warning signs will appear on our roads for the first time in a bid to reverse population decline of a third in just over a decade.
The signs will alert motorists to the possible presence of the creatures, whose natural defence mechanisms provide scant protection against cars.
The scheme is being promoted by Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, who was appointed Parliament’s “Hedgehog champion” last year.
He said: “The fall in the number of hedgehogs is a great concern to me. I have asked whether road signs can be designed to make drivers aware when small wildlife is present, in order to protect species like this.”
Nus Ghani, a transport minister, said in Parliament the signs would be located at animal casualty black spots.
A spokesman for the Hedgehog Preservation Society said: “It can only benefit the hedgehog population to make people aware that they are in the area.
“Even if only one or two people slow down, that could make a big difference. The problem is that hedgehogs don’t have much of a flight instinct. They just curl up and wait for the danger to go away, but if their danger is a car there is no defence.”
According to analysis by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, the hedgehog population fell by a third between 2004 and 2017.
Although hedgehog road fatalities fell by around half between 2001 and 2011 deaths have been consistent for the last seven years with current estimates around 100,000 hedgehogs killed annually. But experts fear this level of mortality is unsustainable.
Last year, the owner of a hedgehog sanctuary convinced her local council to put up warning signs after she counted 29 hedgehogs killed in a year on a road near her home in Brockworth, near Gloucester.