This is enormous news!

Please pop over to the substack version of this in order to comment. It is free to sign up though you are very welcome to contribute if you have the capacity!

So - we know that hedgehogs are in trouble. They are now on the Red List as ‘vulnerable to extinction’ for the UK; the latest State of Britain’s Hedgehog Report showed that while urban hedgehog numbers are down by around 25% (and have levelled off the decline) rural hedgehogs are down by up to 75% - just since the year 2000.

But where do we start? There are so many threats - which are the ones that should be given the most attention? Because, as much as we would love to, we cannot solve all the problems at the same time!

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and People’s Trust for Endangered Species worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Conservation Planning Specialist Group to pull together a conservation strategy. This was also a collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders - NGOs, government agencies, animal rehabilitators, farming community, national infrastructure bodies, and academics. 

What was the goal? Here is the ‘Vision Statement’

“It’s 2053 … Wild hedgehog populations are thriving from towns to countryside, supported through our combined actions, meeting the needs of people and nature.”

How to get there? First was to work out what the key threats are - six were identified as priorities for the next ten years.

1. Decrease in availability and distribution of natural food and associated habitat
2. Increased vehicle collisions
3. Unintentional mortality and stress due to human intervention
4. Accidental death and misadventure
5. Toxin accumulation
6. Genetic isolation

Within each of these threats there is complexity and uncertainty - so we need more information. But not to the extent that we end up with ‘paralysis by analysis’ … it is important that we do let the perfect get in the way of the good!

It would be really interesting to hear your thoughts about this list … anything missing? Please go and view on the substack page so you can comment (unless you are already here!!)

For example, predation by badgers could be considered a threat - but is actually part of the first in the list - because the relationship with badgers is probably more about food competition and habitat fragmentation than it is about actual predation. 

Now, not all the threats are equal - and some will be more relevant to urban settings, some rural. The idea of the document is to outline the direction of travel - the priorities - then we need to move on to developing action plans to create the change that is needed.

To enable that to happen there will need to be research - we can - and many do - work from a gut instinct about things we care deeply, but that is not enough. Research may uncover uncomfortable truths.

Many years ago - back in 1993 - I undertook a hedgehog radio tracking project for the RSPCA, supervised by Dr Pat Morris. The work I was doing was to assess whether juvenile hedgehogs taken into care late in the autumn, and kept at the West Hatch hospital over winter, could cope with reintroduction to the wild in totally unfamiliar surroundings. If the results showed that they did not survive it would bring into question the work of rescues who did that … and guess what … they behaved like normal hedgehogs (though had failed to pick immortality while in care). But until then there had been no robust research looking at this … so … it will be with the action taken from the strategy document. What are the impacts of supplementary feeding? Are there any negatives? Why do isolated populations die out? Is it to do with genetic isolation? Is there enough evidence to argue for greater extension of 20mph limits on our roads?

For the full report, follow this link

So - please - have a read - and comment here, I would love to hear what you think.

In other news … and there has been so much going on it is hard to keep up! My latest book, Five Nights Out, might well become my best seller … which is a shame as I will earn no money from that!! But, at £1 … what a bargain! I have been selling them at £2 when doing events and then just giving away more! And if you have already read it (won’t take you long!) - dropping a review on Amazon would help push it into the light!

I have completed the audiobook for Cull of the Wild - my first time doing this - such intense work, but I am so thrilled to have this coming to life next month.

And I was the subject of a film course my wife runs … they needed a subject … so I talked about hedgehogs and bonfires and they filmed and edited … for many it was the first time doing either and I think they have done pretty well … here is one film and here is the other! And if you are interested in joining a course, run in Oxford, then follow this link, they always sell out, are very very cheap for what you get - and you might get to make a film of me!!

photo from Hedgehog Champion Christopher Morgan.