Meet the hedgehog heroes
With Hedgehog Awareness Week approaching, we speak to two passionate prickly supporters about projects helping these cute creatures
Ever since we first read about Beatrix Potter’s homespun washerwoman, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, we’ve loved the characterful hedgehog. But for future generations there’s every possibility that hedgehogs may become creatures they read about only in books. While there were an estimated 30 million hedgehogs scurrying around the UK in the Fifties, there are now thought to be fewer than one million. And as our environment changes and threats to their survival increase, the outlook for these little pricklies isn’t looking good. Luckily, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle’s friends have an army of hedgehog-loving heroes who are coming to their rescue with a whole raft of community projects. And as we gear up for Hedgehog Awareness Week (April 30-May 6) we shine a light on two brilliant initiatives that are helping numbers thrive.
A day in the life of the hedgehog officer
In July last year, Suffolk Wildlife Trust hit the headlines when their job advert for a dedicated hedgehog officer sparked
worldwide interest. Set up after the Trust received lots of hedgehog sightings, suggesting a rich natural network that needed a caretaker, the candidate who fought off 150 applicants to get the job was 26-year old conservationist, Alexandra North. Now a few months into the role, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and British Hedgehog Preservation Society, she’s busy getting the whole community excited about hedgehogs. “I’ve always loved mammals and I think hedgehogs are a great species; very unusual and intriguing,” says zoology graduate, Alexandra. “It’s my job to try to raise awareness of the situation for hedgehogs and encourage the public to take easy steps to help them.” For Alexandra, her days as a hedgehog officer can be surprisingly varied and while it’s all to do with saving little pricklies, a big part of her work involves not hedgehogs, but humans. “My work as a hedgehog officer is a lot about engaging communities so in a week I could be giving talks to community groups, meeting interested individuals like allotment holders or arranging events. Some of the events I’m particularly excited to run our night safaris, where we will give out night vision monoculars and other technology that help people detect elusive wildlife in the dark. “I’ve also been recruiting volunteers to act as hedgehog champions who persuade their neighbours to make their gardens more hedgehog-friendly. “It’s really important children care for hedgehogs, too, so I do a lot of work in schools, doing assemblies and asking children to make posters about hedgehog conservation which they can then take home to share with parents. “We need children and adults getting out there seeing wildlife and reconnecting with the species. That’s one reason our next big project is to get trail cameras and footprint tunnels in local gardens so we can survey how many hedgehogs we actually have in the area. I’d love to see more hedgehog officers around the country as I think it’s really important to have someone focused on conservation. If we don’t do anything, hedgehogs will continue to decline and obviously, we don’t want to lose this iconic species as they’re so vital to the environment and other British wildlife, too.”
Welcome to Hedgehog Street
When Becky Walton first spotted hedgehogs in her garden a few years ago – the first time she’d seen one since she was a child – she felt compelled to do something to help. So she signed up as a volunteer champion for the Hedgehog Street campaign run by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Since then she’s got her immediate neighbours as well as 25 streets in her surrounding area to look out for pricklies as part of a dedicated community group. “HK Hedgehogs has become the biggest Hedgehog Street community in the UK, something we are hugely proud of. We now have more than 200 members working together to link and manage their gardens for hedgehogs. And we run awareness-raising events and activities throughout the year – community fun days, health walks and talks for local schools and groups. “We have also taken our first exciting steps into citizen science by loaning footprint tunnels to residents so they can see who is visiting at night – we’ve collected sets of hedgehog footprints! When people realise they have hedgehogs in their garden they’ll watch for them and start taking a whole new interest. It’s a great way to engage all ages.”
’My work as a hedgehog officer is about engaging communities to help this great species. If we don’t do anything they will continue to decline’