How to: Make your garden a hedgehog haven
With all those prickles, you might be mistaken for thinking the humble hedgehog can easily fend for itself, but it seems the once-common garden creatures are finding it harder and harder to co-exist with humans.
A steep decline in their numbers has recently led the UK's wildlife experts to add hedgehogs to the Biodiversity Action Plan for threatened species. What can you do to be a better host and prevent a further drop? Here are a few (pointy) pointers:
Hedgehogs have traditionally been welcomed in gardens because they provide excellent pest-control. But use of chemical pesticides has driven them out, since some are poisonous to them, despite the fact that 'hogs have developed immunity to a number of toxins that other garden critters can't handle. Avoiding the use of pesticides as much as possible will help create a kinder environment to this far cuter form of pest control.
Rubbish can be a real hazard to hedgehogs. Make sure you keep anything that hedgehogs and other small creatures could get tangled in sealed up in bins, particularly netting of all kinds, plastic containers, empty food cans, yoghurt pots, plastic mugs, etc.
A recent study also showed that hedgehogs' homes are becoming fragmented, and the living conditions they like are becoming few and far between. Put crudely, there aren't as many hedges as there used to be.
Garden trends for decking and paving are removing the hogs' hiding places, and there's little comfort in sheltering under the barbecue. Making sure you've got plenty of green cover in your garden will soon encourage more of our prickled friends.
If you'd like to be a really good friend to a hedgehog, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society has a great article here on how to make hedgehog homes. In the Autumn, hogs are preparing to go into hibernation, so now is the ideal time to get going on this project. There are three different 'grades' of home listed here, from a hedgehog 'prefab' to a grander affair...
