Thursday, 10th Apr 2014
Reporter: Ellis Barker Newbury News Reporter
Email: ellis.barker@newburynews.co.uk
Contact: 01635 886639
HELP a hungry hedgehog this spring as they begin to emerge from hibernation.
Thatcham-based sanctuary Hedgehog Bottom has joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in its campaign to encourage residents to provide food for the spiky critters, with low quantities of insects to sustain them ahead of the breeding season.
Founder and manager of Hedgehogs Bottom, Gill Lucraft, said: “In 1955 there were 35 million hedgehogs in the country; we are now down to under one million.
“If it carries on at this rate we could lose them altogether in the next 15 to 20 years.
“Feeding them is important because they rely pretty much on back gardens – there’s nothing for them out in the country anymore.”
She has advised people to put bowls of cat biscuits under bushes to keep them dry, and shallow dishes of water around the garden.
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