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The National Hedgehog Preservation society has announced that the Hedgehog population in the UK is at risk. They are taking action with the National Hedgehog monitoring programme where volunteers can put cameras in their gardens and local outdoor spaces to help the society with detailed conservation plans and get an updated exact population count of hedgehog count in your local area.

They are calling on members of the public to get involved by making their gardens a Hedgehog haven to help avoid hedgehogs becoming extinct or endangered. Read on to see how you can get involved! This year The National Hedgehog society are asking people to Welcome Wildlife into their gardens. 

It was recently Hedgehog Awareness week, so to celebrate WhatsonUK have curated a few ways you can keep our favourite spikey friends safe in the great outdoors no matter how big your outdoor space is. You get involved with these tips in your local park or your very own back garden. Change can start from anywhere! 

• Garden Upkeep 

Hedgehogs thrive best in tall grassy conditions, but the reality is you are going to need to give your garden a spring clean mow every once in a while in the summer time especially with British winters being so long!  Don’t forget to check your lawn or garden for hedgehogs before mowing, so you can avoid injuring them and if you do accidentally injure them make sure to take them to your nearest vet or RSPCA for help. 

• Food and shelter for Hedgehogs 

Hedgehogs are quite a robust species and don’t need much to survive. An easy way to make shelter for hedgehogs in your garden is to gather up some leaves and shrubbery as well as some log piles in a corner. This will attract food and other wildlife to create a safe habitat for our spikey friends! Another top tip is to leave a water bowl out with some pebbles in so the bees are welcome too! Water can often be sparse during hot spells, so this is very important!

• Safe places for Hedgehogs

They not only need shelter and food but also other places to move about within the garden, so they can move between gardens. A good fix for this is to create a hedgehog highway, These 13cm x 13cm square gaps in the bottom of boundary walls and fences ensure hedgehogs can get in and out easily – and once these Hedgehog Highways are made you can log them at www.bighedgehogmap.org. This can be really useful for those working in Conservation to keep the hedgehogs safe and work out their routes. It is natural for animals to move around and not stay in one place. Another good thing to do to make your garden and hedgehog highway more accessible is to have ponds with escape routes like a sloping edge, ramp or half-submerged rock for hedgehogs to scramble out on and move around.

• Safe Proof your garden and beware of dangers to species like Hedgehogs

Weeds and ants can be annoying in your garden, but try to stop using poisons and pesticides. These could directly harm wildlife and destroy the food chain. Litter can also hurt wildlife, so try to minmise that in your local area by picking up your own rubbish instead of leaving it on the floor for animals to injure themselves with. Lots of communities offer local litter picks for your parks. Get involved with one of them to help the hedgehogs and give back to your community.

After a busy day of summer games in the garden like Tennis or football involving nets or plastics make sure to pack them away and raise on netting 30 cm off the grounhd so hedgehogs can pass underneath them and not get tangled. 

Visit the Hedgehog society website for more information and support with regular tips and tricks for being hedgehog friendly featured on their X (formerly Twitter) account.