Emily Hartley
Why Britain's Hedgehogs Need a Hand
There's something quietly magical about a hedgehog shuffling across the lawn at dusk. Yet those snuffling, spiny visitors are becoming rarer. Numbers have fallen dramatically since the 1950s, when Britain's gardens and hedgerows supported millions of them. Today, the population is a fraction of what it was, and the decline shows little sign of stopping.
The reasons are familiar: lost hedgerows, tidy fences, busy roads, and gardens managed with chemicals rather than curiosity. The good news is that hedgehogs don't need grand gestures. They need small, consistent acts of kindness from people like you, spread across thousands of gardens and green spaces. Here's how to make your patch count.
Let Them Through: Build a Hedgehog Highway
A hedgehog can roam well over a mile in a single night looking for food and a mate. Solid fences, brick walls and gravel boards turn whole neighbourhoods into dead ends. A single gap can reconnect a row of gardens into a proper foraging route.
Cut a square roughly 13cm by 13cm at the base of your fence, gravel board or gate. That's about the size of a CD case, and it's plenty for a hedgehog while staying too small for most dogs and foxes to squeeze through. If you're worried about pets, a short tunnel of pipe or a purpose-made hedgehog hole cover will do the trick.
Talk to your neighbours about it. One gap is helpful; a chain of gaps along an entire street is transformative. If you rent or share a boundary with a council-owned green space, it's often worth asking before you take a saw to anything structural.
A Drink That Saves Lives
Hedgehogs get thirsty, especially in hot, dry spells and during pregnancy or nursing. A shallow dish of fresh water at ground level is one of the simplest things you can offer.
- Use a shallow dish — a plant saucer works well. Deep containers risk drowning, particularly for youngsters.
- Refresh it daily, and keep it out of the full midday sun.
- Never put out milk or bread and milk. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant, and milk causes serious digestive problems.
- If you want to feed, offer tinned meaty cat or dog food or specialist hedgehog food, plus a dish of water alongside.
Put food out after dusk and take leftovers in before morning, so you're not inadvertently feeding cats, rats and foxes instead.
Bin the Slug Pellets
Slug pellets containing metaldehyde have been banned for outdoor use in the UK for good reason. Hedgehogs don't eat pellets directly, but they eat the slugs and snails that do — and the poison builds up. Even the alternative pellets based on ferric phosphate can harm earthworms, which are a hedgehog's staple diet.
Better still, encourage natural pest control. A garden with a healthy population of beetles, frogs, slow worms and birds tends to keep slugs in check without any intervention at all. If you must act, go out after dark with a torch and pick slugs off your tender seedlings by hand. It's oddly satisfying, and completely harmless to everything else.
The same goes for weedkillers and insecticides. A garden that's buzzing and crawling with life is exactly what a hedgehog wants to find.
Make Room for a Wild Corner
Hedgehogs are nocturnal, secretive and fond of cover. Untidiness, in the right places, is a gift.
- Leave a pile of logs or prunings in a quiet corner. It makes a superb nest site and a nursery for beetles.
- Let a patch of grass grow long, or leave a few leaves to gather under shrubs. Hedgehogs love to root through leaf litter.
- Plant native hedging — hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel or holly — if you have the space. It gives shelter, food and a natural corridor.
- Check that ponds have a gently sloping edge or a ramp of stones, so a hedgehog that falls in can climb out.
If you use a strimmer, mower or hedge trimmer, walk the area first and look carefully. Long grass and dense undergrowth are exactly where hedgehogs sleep during the day.
Bonfires, Strimmers and Hogs Out in Daylight
An unlit bonfire is essentially a five-star hedgehog hotel: dry, warm and full of nooks. Build your pile on the day you plan to light it, or lift and relocate the whole thing a few feet before you strike a match. Listen for rustling, and check underneath with a torch.
If you see a hedgehog out in broad daylight, something is usually wrong. A hog that's wobbling, lying flat on the lawn, or covered in flies is likely unwell or exhausted and needs help from a local wildlife rescue. A small hedgehog found in late autumn — under about 450g — may not have enough fat reserves to survive hibernation, so it's worth seeking advice too.
The rest of the time, simply enjoy them. Watch from a distance, keep cats in after dark where you can, and know that your gap in the fence or dish of water might be the small kindness that keeps a hedgehog going for another season.
