Built-in solution to hazards of grids

Country Notebook

IT is always heartening to see measures taken to help wildlife, however small.

And something caught my eye underfoot on a Dartmoor walk the other day that made me smile. A small act, but a considerate one with the welfare of one of our favourite mammals in mind.

One thing we have plenty of in the Westcountry is cattle grids. Certainly on Dartmoor, where the metal grills set into the ground keep free-ranging livestock from straying off the National Park and along neighbouring roads. For drivers, a rumble beneath the car wheels tells you that you have crossed onto or off the moor.

The cleverly-designed horizontal metal struts are spaced above a shallow pit, so that no sheep, pony or cow would risk crossing and causing themselves an injury slipping between the bars. Cattle grids, or stock guards as they are known in America, have been around a long time, fixed as part of a fence line and in the States where cattle have learnt not to cross the barriers they have even been replaced with virtual cattle grids on major highways – alternating bars of white and black painted onto the road that resemble the grills and fool the cattle.

When I was young I learnt that curious hedgehogs in particular could find themselves imprisoned in cattle grids, which act like giant pitfall traps, and a couple of stones or a piece of wood placed in the bottom could help.

However, on west Dartmoor near where I live I notice the concrete sides of the cattle grids now have a slanting channel built in, allowing hedgehogs and other animals to clamber out. A thoughtful modification – and a neat solution to a prickly problem.