The hedgehog highway initiative is helping to protect these much-loved creatures.
CreativeNature_nl
How hedgehog-friendly is your garden? While these cute yet prickly little creatures have been common around the UK for around 15 million years, the last 20 years have seen a sharp decline in their numbers. Everything from habitat loss due to the rise of urban development, increased road traffic and habitat fragmentation (i.e. fences and walls) means that hedgehogs face increasing danger in our modern world. So it’s never been more important to make safe spaces for these nocturnal creatures in our gardens, whether it’s a small green space in a city or a sprawling countryside plot.
‘One of the main reasons hedgehogs are struggling in Britain is because our fences and walls are becoming more and more secure, reducing the amount of land available to them,’ Hedgehog Street (a joint campaign by People’s Trust for Endangered Species and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society) explains on its site.
What is a hedgehog highway?
One of the easiest and most important starting points to help hedgehogs move around is by installing a hedgehog highway in your garden. These 13cm x 13cm square holes can be cut through or under a garden fence to connect it to the neighbouring gardens. These small holes allow hedgehogs to move easily between green spaces searching for food, shelter and mates. Once you have connected your garden, you can also create wild patches for them within it, leaving water and places to nest such as leaf and log piles or a hedgehog house in the garden for them to settle in.
These small holes at the base of fences allow hedgehogs to move freely from garden to garden.
Tony and Pam FrancisHow do you create a hedgehog highway?
‘Hedgehog highways are vital for hedgehogs to move through the urban landscape; our gardens can be a haven for them, but only if they can get in,’ explains Grace Johnson, Hedgehog Officer for the Hedgehog Street campaign. ‘My top tip would be to consider the overall connectedness of the area – try to put highways on all sides of the garden, and connect the front to back as well if you can. Encouraging neighbours to do the same will ensure good access for hedgehogs!’
Wildlife gardener and writer Kate Bradbury agrees. ‘Place the hedgehog highway anywhere they can get in, really. The location of the highway is less important than the location of the nest box, which should be in a quiet location that won’t be disturbed during the day or night, or the feeding station, which should be placed away from the nest box and covered to protect the food from foxes, badgers and cats.’ Kate also advises keeping food and water separate. ‘Many people put the food and water together in the feeding station but keeping these separate means there’s no queue for food, as they can spend several minutes drinking.’
‘I’m lucky that my garden gate has a gap in it, so hedgehogs have always been able to access the garden. But after I moved in, I punched a hole in the wall, which created a shortcut for hedgehogs to get into the garden from the nearby park,’ adds Kate. ‘This did increase numbers and makes me sleep better at night knowing the hogs have quick access to food and water if they need it.’
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