Hedgehog sightings fall for third consecutive year, survey reveals
Sightings of hedgehogs in gardens have fallen again, with almost six in 10 people saying they have not seen one at all this year, a survey has found.
The annual hedgehog survey by BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine revealed 57% of those quizzed had not seen one of the prickly but muchloved mammals at all in their garden in 2017.
The figure is up from the 51% who said they had not seen a hedgehog in 2016, and 48% who did not see one at all in 2015.
Only 9% of the 1,718 respondents to the survey said they saw hedgehogs regularly in their garden in 2017, down from 12% in 2016.
But greater awareness of the plight of hedgehogs is prompting more gardeners to take steps to help them, the survey reveals.
It found one in six people (17%) had cut a hole in their garden fences to help hedgehogs roam around, 36% were retaining leaves and twigs in their gardens for the mammals to nest in and two-fifths (39%) had stopped using slug pellets.
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.
“On a positive note, British gardeners are doing more than ever to try to save them,” he added.
The latest survey comes after the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018 report was published earlier this year, warning that numbers in the countryside have halved since the turn of the century.
But while numbers had fallen by a third since 2000 in towns and cities, rates of decline in those areas had slowed and in some places hedgehogs may be returning and numbers growing, the report from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species said.