Hedgehog Danger This Autumn!

The onset of Autumn means extra dangers for Britain's most iconic - and most endangered - wild animal, the hedgehog.

The Leatherhead-based Wildlife Aid Foundation (WAF) has issued advice to gardeners and to anyone planning a bonfire this Autumn. "It's important that we get the message out that with hedgehogs already at risk from cars and from continued habitat loss it is all the important that we all do our utmost to keep hedgehogs safe when they are in our gardens," says WAF founder Simon Cowell MBE.

"If you are burning leaves or garden debris over the next few months, you should take extra care not to injure any hedgehogs or put them at risk," Simon says. "We are asking people to be particularly careful if building a big bonfire for Guy Fawkes Night. I'm not saying 'Don't have bonfires' – just that people should be extremely careful, and should always watch out for hedgehogs."

He adds: "The bonfire season is a particularly dangerous time for hedgehogs as they will always curl up and nest inside any pile of leaves or garden debris if it looks warm and inviting - and that can include bonfires for November the Fifth! So please be vigilant. If you are building a bonfire, please do it with great care, not by sticking sharp rakes into the pile. Ideally, you should move or turn over the entire pile of leaves, just to be extra certain. And double check any bonfire just before you light it."

WINTER IS NO SAFER!

For those hedgehogs that make it through the bonfire season, the bitter Winter weather poses another risk to their lives. When hedgehogs hibernate their body temperature can fall to just a few degrees above freezing and their heart rate slows. They depend on their body fat to survive. WAF's veterinary hospital in Randalls Road, Leatherhead, takes in hundreds of sick, injured and orphaned hedgehogs every year and if they are under-weight they are kept in the hospital throughout the Winter, giving them their only chance of survival. "For the hedgehogs that we are 'over-wintering' here at WAF we need to feed them daily to ensure they build up enough body fat. The least we can do for our hedgehog patients is provide a hearty meal and a roof over their heads during the most severe cold weather. After all, life for the little hedgehog is tough enough as it is."

And hedgehogs eat a lot, Simon explains! "For such tiny creatures, I'm amazed at how much they eat! Our little guys chomp their way through around 45 to 50 tins of dog food every single day! Over the entire Autumn and Winter that’s 10,000 tins of food!"

Simon sees WAF's task as not just saving a few thousand animals in the Surrey area but highlighting the plight of threatened wildlife throughout the country - hedgehogs especially.

Recently WAF has been campaigning for a new law specifically to protect hedgehogs - and its campaign is backed by high profile figures such as former MP and 'Strictly' contestant Ann Widdecombe, by comedian Ricky Gervais, and by business leaders such as Sir Richard Branson. "What unites these diverse individuals" says Simon "is their love of wildlife and the countryside, and their recognition that we must do all we can to stop the hedgehog, Britain's best loved wild animal, from becoming extinct."

It is great that people like to have hedgehogs in their gardens but, as Simon points out, the dangers to hedgehogs in our gardens are all year round. "With people having invaded and taken over the hedgehog’s natural habitats, there are nowadays plenty of new menaces to these little animals. Hedgehogs like long grass so they are at risk from careless lawn-mowing. A lawnmower or strimmer can kill. Garden ponds are another problem - as hedgehogs can swim but they are not very strong and their endurance in water is not great. They will drown if they can’t get out of a garden pond, so please make sure you have a ramp made from wood or stones to help them. Another thing is that hedgehogs eat slugs and snails, and can poison themselves if they eat slugs that have been killed with slug pellets. That's yet another hazard for hedgehogs that people don’t tend to think about."

The decline in the hedgehog population is extremely serious, and Simon believes that if action is not taken by Government to halt the decline we might be seeing the very last of Britain's hedgehogs in just a few decades time. "In 1950 there were estimated to be more than 30 million hedgehogs in Britain," he explains. "But now, due mostly to the huge number of roads and cars we have in this country, the hedgehog population is down to about one million, and possibly a lot less. If we don’t intervene to help the hedgehog wherever and whenever we can, this most thoroughly British of all wild animals could be extinct within the next two decades."

Informative post always good for people to refer too x