For 2024, our calendar features watercolour illustrations of UK wildlife by Alexia Claire. To go alongside this, we'd like to tell you more about the plants and animals we chose to feature each month. For October 2024, our species of the month is the Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus).
How to Identify a Hedgehog
Hedgehogs are perhaps the UK's most recognisable and unique mammal. They are well known known for its round, compact body covered in a coat of sharp, brown spines that are roughly around 1 inch long. When threatened, they will usually roll into a tight ball with only the spines facing outwards for protection. Its face and underbelly, in contrast, are covered with coarse, brownish or grey fur with small, dark eyes and a pointed snout. Their ears are small and somewhat hidden within the fur. On Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, over half of the hedgehogs are blonde!
Their weight can vary significantly depending on the season, so they may weigh as little as 400 grams during early Summer and up to 2kg in Autumn before hibernation.
Their presence can also be identified using a footprint tracking tunnel.
Where are Hedgehogs found?
The European hedgehog is commonly found throughout most of Europe, from the UK and Ireland to parts of Scandinavia and as far south as the Mediterranean countries, including Spain, Italy, and Greece. In the UK, tend to prefer environments like woodland edges, grasslands, meadows, and gardens, especially those with plenty of dense vegetation or hedges, which provide shelter and food. In more urban settings, they are often spotted in parks and suburban gardens, where they benefit from human activity by finding easy access to food and shelter.
They are usually nocturnal, sticking to hedges to forage, so on a quiet night you might hear a hedgehog before you see one as they rustle among the leaves.
What do Hedgehogs Eat?
A hedgehog's diet mainly consist of invertebrates such as worms, beetles, slugs and snails, and caterpillars but are opportunistic so will also take ground-nesting bird eggs, small frogs and fruits. Because of their diverse diet, hedgehogs are great for natural pest control, especially in areas with lots of vegetation or compost heaps.
They are also partial to supplementary feeding, so leaving out some specialised hedgehog food, wet cat food or leftovers will be beneficial and make it more likely for them to visit your garden.
How can we help protect them?
Although Hedgehogs are partially protected under the Wildlife & Countryside Act (1981) People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) have found that populations of rural hedgehogs nationally have declined 30-75% since 2000. The main cause of this decline is thought to be habitat loss and fragmentation caused by urban development, agricultural intensification, and the removal of hedgerows. These changes disrupt the natural corridors that hedgehogs use to travel, forage, and find shelter, limiting their movement and access to food sources. Other significant threats include road traffic, and the use of pesticides results in fewer food sources and direct poisoning. Here are some ways in which you can help to combat hedgehog decline:
If you do need to use slug pellets, it's really important to ensure they are inaccessible to hedgehogs and dead slugs are removed regularly to prevent them from being eaten. Having hedgehogs in your garden will help to reduce the number of slugs and snails naturally!
Supplementary feeding of hedgehogs is a common practice, but this is particularly beneficial in Autumn to help them prepare for hibernation. You can also provide hedgehog boxes in which they can nest and hibernate, here are some of our favourites, and making sure your bonfire heap is hedgehog-free before lighting.
Leaving a hedgehog-sized gap in fences for access creates a network of hedgehog highways through gardens, parks and open spaces. This provides save routes to travel and forage, and reduces the need for them to cross dangerous roads to find food.
Conservation groups in the UK also do a lot of hedgehog-based conservation activities to get involved with. Take a look at PTES' Big Hedgehog Map, or join your local Mammal Group.
