Hedgehog population in dramatic decline

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jan/29/hedgehog-population-dramatic-decline


Ecologists have published figures suggesting hedgehog numbers declined by over a third between 2003 and 2012. Photograph: Andrew Milligan/PA

The once common sight of hedgehogs in gardens could become a thing of the past, with the spiny species having suffered a dramatic decline in recent years on a par with the loss of starlings, red squirrels and other British wildlife.

Ecologists this week published figures suggesting hedgehog numbers declined by over a third between 2003 and 2012.

Such a precipitous drop means the hedgehog, celebrated in culture from Beatrix Potter's Mrs Tiggy-Winkle to Philip Larkin's poetry, is becoming an increasingly rare sight in the UK's gardens, parks and hedgerows.

The People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), a charity which has been running counts of hedgehogs for over a decade and compiled the figures, believes there are now fewer than a million hedgehogs left in the UK, down from an estimated 2 million in the mid-1990s and 36 million in the 1950s. David Wembridge, PTES's surveys officer, said the fall should ring alarm bells.

[dipsydoodle]

1. The answer

is to put food out for them and also make gaps at the bottom of fences to allow them to travel. I know for example that they scoff the food which is put out for the local stray cats if there is any left at night time. That's aside from what's put out for them under the hedge which they can easily negotiate. You can buy houses for them too.

[xchrom]

2. fabulous!

[dipsydoodle]

3. I only knew about those houses originally

because the chiropractor the family uses put about 10 of those in his back garden (rear yard to you guess) years ago and they looked real neat.

[xchrom]

4. i just like that people have that sort of relationship with

their neighbors.

people here do similar things -- i know that -- but it's always nice to see the projects.

[stuntcat]

6. oh my gosh I love that

hedgie helpers are HEROES

[LWolf]

5. "the loss of starlings..." Who knew?

We've got a thriving population to send back to them.

It looks like over-development is making things uncomfortable for Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, as it has done for so many other species.

Any long term solution has got to address human over-population.

[Nihil]

7. Humans, cats & rats

Humans from the environmental destruction and poisoning of natural
food & water sources.

Cats (outdoors of course) don't often kill outright but can fatally injure.

Rats from the competition side (and the knock-on effect that people are
wary of putting down food unless they *know* that it will be a hedgehog
eating it).


(As a sad personal note: didn't see any visiting hedgehogs in my garden
at all last year whereas five or six years ago we had a family nearby ... )