Good news … and bad news
Every few years we collect the data from different surveys and get the statisticians to work, giving us a picture of how things are going for our hedgehogs. And today is launched the latest State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report.
The report, produced by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, provides a fascinating insight into the plight of our favourite wild animal.
The good news is that in gardens and urban green spaces there seems to be a slight upturn in the numbers of hedgehogs being seen. Now, before we rush to get the bunting up, pop champagne corks and book the marching band, a word of caution. This is a slight upturn following a massive decline. We risk slipping into the world of ‘shifting baselines’ if we are not careful - thinking that an already degraded ecosystem is what we should be striving for.
But still - it is so very pleasing to see. In particular because the work of the Hedgehog Street campaign I help run has been aimed mostly at this very set of ecosystems. And the main thrust of this petition is to help overcome the barriers we inadvertently erect between our gardens!
The rural situation is not so happy I am afraid. Across the UK we see a decline of between 30% and 75% since the turn of the century. The fastest declines are happening in the east of the country, where there have been more hedgehogs seen. This is possibly a case of ‘levelling down’ - as the west has been hard hit already.
We have begun to work more closely with the farming community to try and get them to embrace hedgehog-friendly practices. One of the key ways we are doing that is with an information leaflet similar to the one that has been so widely enjoyed in suburbia - the farmers guide is important. If you know anyone who would benefit from this, please do share it with them.
So what can we do to try and turn this around for hedgehogs? Well, it might seem a bit obvious, but how about having a massive push to increase hedgerows, and improve the ones that are already there but gradually being destroyed by poor management and neglect? Our urban hedgehogs benefitted enormously from the focus on holes in fences - maybe this could provide a similar change?
Oh - and just because someone will mention badgers, let me get in there first! Badgers and hedgehogs have coexisted for millennia … they have an asymmetric intraguild predatory relationship. They principally compete for food - worms and other macro-invertebrates. Our best understanding is that when the wider environment becomes degraded, their relationship shifts. So, rather than attacking badgers, lets look to improving our farmed land so that wildlife has a chance to share it with us …
But let’s close with the good news - the sort of thing that this petition is calling for DOES make a difference. We are a massively powerful voice for good - over a million of us care enough to have signed up - so let’s use this voice well - lobby our politicians, local and national, keep an eye on the developers and get them commit to hedgehog highways - and join in the wider conversation on the Hedgehog Highways Facebook Group!