Hedgehog Awareness Week

It’s Hedgehog Awareness Week this week. It’s organised by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and it’s all about looking after hedgehogs.

Looking After Hedgehogs

Looking after hedgehogs is important because a third of hedgehogs in the UK have gone since the year 2000.

Here are some things you can do to help hedgehogs.

One of the most important things you can do to help hedgehogs is make sure hedgehogs can get in and out of your garden by putting hedgehog holes in your fences or having hedges instead of fences. Hedgehogs need to travel about one mile every night to look for food. Imagine if you were a little hedgehog and there were fences everywhere without hedgehog holes in! So please make sure hedgehogs can get through, thank you!

It’s important to check long grass before using a strimmer in case there’s a hedgehog hiding in it. If you don’t, a hedgehog might get badly hurt or die!

Ponds are good for hedgehogs because they attract insects and give them somewhere to drink but you need to make sure your pond has sloping sides so hedgehogs can get out if they fall in.

Piles of sticks, leaves and logs are good for hedgehogs because they give them somewhere to hide, sleep and make their nests and they attract insects for them to eat.

Overgrown corners of the garden are good for hedgehogs because it gives them somewhere to hide and look for food if you don’t mow or weed it.

Don’t use chemicals or slug pellets in your garden because they might poison hedgehogs. The slugs will eat the slug pellets and the hedgehog will eat the slugs and it might die!

Make sure you don’t drop litter or leave netting around your garden because hedgehogs might get stuck in litter or nets.

You can make a hedgehog feeding station to help hedgehogs. Put hedgehog food or meaty dog or cat food inside and water next to it. It’s really important to put out water for all the wildlife in your garden.

If you find a hedgehog that’s poorly or hurt, please take it to a hedgehog rescue. Thank you!

You can look out for tracks and signs to see if you have hedgehogs in your garden.

Please try to help hedgehogs! Thank you!