Schoolboy’s sticker may help spike decline in hedgehogs
Alert on mowers ‘reminds gardeners to look for animals’, says 15-year-old
STICKERS will be added to lawn mowers, warning users to look out for hedgehogs after a teenage schoolboy successfully lobbied a major manufacturer.
Gardeners will be reminded to look out for the small animals before cutting their grass after Genpower – a UK distributor of Hyundai Power Products equipment – agreed to add the “Be Hedgehog Aware” message to their products.
Dylan Allman, 15, is a passionate protector of the wild creatures and hopes the stickers will help protect the UK’S dwindling population.
“We are delighted for Hyundai Power Products to be working with Dylan and his ‘Hedgehog Aware’ campaign,” said Roland Llewellin, the managing director of Genpower.
“It’s a very worthwhile cause and also very inspiring to see someone of Dylan’s age driving this forward.
“The first batch of machines with the stickers on have come off the production line, and we can’t wait to get those out to the UK’S gardeners and start making a difference to helping reduce the number of hedgehogs injured in gardens,” Mr Llewellin added.
Grace Johnson, of wildlife campaign Hedgehog Street, called on other companies to follow suit “to ensure that anyone using their products are ‘hedgehog aware’ when out gardening”.
Since 2000 more than half of Britain’s native hedgehogs have been lost from the countryside, and a third from urban areas, according to research.
There are now fewer than a million, down from 36 million in the 1950s.
The decline has been put down to the use of pesticides, cutting back hedgerows, more cars on the road and over-tidying of gardens.
Despite periodically being voted the UK’S favourite mammal, they are on the Red List for British Mammals and are classed as being vulnerable to extinction.
Hedgehogs curl up in a ball when threatened, which makes them vulnerable to injuries or death from lawn mowing and strimming.
Dylan said the new stickers – the result of a two-year campaign – will be more effective than having warnings on the boxes equipment comes in.
“[Gardeners] need to be reminded to look for hedgehogs every time they’re about to strim or mow,” Dylan said.
“A sticker on the actual piece of equipment reminds the gardener to check for hedgehogs first, which means they are much less likely to be injured if they’re discovered before strimming or mowing begins.”
Hedgehogs should be left alone if found or gardeners can call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society if the animals seem unwell.