Campaign to protect hedgehogs falls short

HEDGEHOG numbers are falling despite grassroots efforts by homeowners to protect populations, a survey suggests.

An annual BBC Gardeners’ World magazine poll reveals sightings in gardens have fallen again with almost six in 10 saying they have not seen a hedgehog this year.

The figure is up from the 51 per cent who said they had not seen a hedgehog in 2016 and 48 per cent who did not see one at all in 2015.

Only 9 per cent of the 1,718 respondents said they saw hedgehogs regularly in their garden in 2017, down from 12 per cent in 2016. But greater awareness of the plight of hedgehogs is prompting more gardeners to take steps to help them, it is suggested.

The poll found one in six people (17 per cent) had cut a hole in their garden fences to help hedgehogs roam, 36 per cent were retaining leaves and twigs in their gardens for the mammals to nest in and two fifths (39 per cent) had stopped using slug pellets. Slightly more people were taking each of the actions than in 2016.

Kevin Smith, the 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, gardeners are doing more than ever to try to save them – with a reduction in slug pellets the biggest single action taken in the last year.”

The latest survey findings come after the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2018 report was published earlier this year, warning that the 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 they may be returning and numbers growing, the report from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species said.