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How can we help hedgehogs in our towns and villages?

The Problem 

Hedgehogs are one of our fastest-declining mammals and we need to help them. The reasons behind their decline are not yet known for certain. It is likely due to the combined impact of intensive agriculture, loss of hedgerows and grassland, use of pesticides, tidier gardens, new houses (with hedgehog-proof fences) and new roads. What we may well be seeing now is the accumulated impacts of all these factors. This is compromising the viability of our remaining hedgehog populations, isolating them into smaller pockets of suitable habitat. This means that they are now far more likely to suffer local extinctions because of a single adverse event. 

 

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The Solution 

Urban areas provide potential for protecting and strengthening existing hedgehog populations. The Hedgehog Highway project, run by Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust and supported by PTES, will bring together three urban communities to improve how our green spaces are connected, in order to benefit hedgehogs. Groups of neighbours will be motivated to increase linkages for hedgehogs between gardens and green spaces by creating hedgehog holes in garden and park fences to help them roam. Then we’ll ask residents to work with their neighbours to see how effective their improvements have been by surveying and tracking hedgehogs in their communities.

 

This project is only possible thanks to our generous donors. Can you help save hedgehogs today? 

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