Hedgehogs ahead! New sign warns drivers of animals on roads

Launch welcomed by nature and motoring groups hoping to cut deaths and accidents

Kevin Rawlinson

Tue 18 Jun 2019 00.23 BSTLast modified on Tue 18 Jun 2019 07.15 BST

After decades of being killed on the road in huge numbers, hedgehogs are finally to get their own road sign warning drivers to watch out for them.

The new signs bearing the silhouette of the animal in a red triangle will be placed in areas where the accident risk is highest and will also be used to warn about squirrels, badgers, otters and other small animals crossing.

Ministers announced the proposed new signage on Monday as part of a scheme to reduce the number of animal road deaths and the number of accidents caused by people swerving to avoid animals or motorcyclists skidding on roadkill.

The new road sign to improve road safety and protect hedgehogs. Photograph: Department for Transport

Hedgehog numbers have fallen by more than half in the UK countryside since 2000, with roads a particular hazard for the mammals because they curl up into a ball in the face of danger.

The signs are the first featuring a new animal in a quarter of a century: they join those warning motorists about large animals, such as deer, cows, sheep and horses, and the smaller ones, such as migratory toads and wildfowl.

“We have some of the safest roads in the world but we are always looking at how we can make them safer. Motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users are particularly at risk,” the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, told Monday’s launch.

Read on

Dig for Britain: householders urged to build ponds to help frogs, newts and hedgehogs

Sightings of frogs have slumped in recent years 

 Sarah Knapton, science editor

12 MARCH 2019 • 6:00AM

Householders are being urged to dig ponds in their gardens, or fill washing up bowls with water, to help stem the decline in frogs, newts and hedgehogs.

The Wildlife Trusts and Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) are concerned that the disappearance of ponds is damaging wildlife.

Recent figures from the RSPB showed frog sightings have fallen by 15 per cent while toads have declined 28 per cent since 2014.

Ponds are a vital habitats and water sources for amphibians and small mammals but housebuilders now rarely include them in garden designs, and the number of municipal ponds has halved from one million to 500,000 in the past 150 years.

Health and safety fears has led to many ponds being filled in in recent years following calls from the Child Accident Prevention Trust (CAPT) and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa).

Continued

Scientists provide first evidence of diphtheria-like infectious agent in hedgehogs

Date:  March 4, 2019

Source:  Forschungsverbund Berlin

As cultural successors, hedgehogs reside in close proximity to humans. Close contacts, however, are not only beneficial but also bear risks for animals and humans. Road traffic, lawn mowers and infectious agents threaten the prickly insect eaters. Some infectious agents can be transmitted to humans. Considerate treatment of wildlife and appropriate hygiene measures minimize the risk of infection, though. A recent study, initiated by the National Consiliary Laboratory for Diphtheria (CL-Diphtheria) in Germany and conducted in close collaboration of five federal state laboratories and the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW), identified Corynebacterium ulcerans -- a close relative of the diphtheria causing bacterium -- in hedgehogs. The study is published in Emerging Microbes & Infections.

Diphtheria is a bacterial disease of humans affecting the upper respiratory tract. The etiologic agent Corynebacterium diphtheria can harbor a specific diphtheria toxin gene. Diphtheria is very rare in countries with high immunization coverage such as Germany, although C. diphtheria associated skin or wound infections occur more frequently over the past years in long-distance travelers. Germany has recognized an increase of infections with Corynebacterium ulcerans too, a close relative to C. diphtheria that often carries a diphtheria-like toxin gene and has now been found in hedgehogs. A bulletin published from the National Consiliary Laboratory for Diphtheria concluded that C. ulcerans occurs in a variety of animal species without or with disease symptoms such as lymph node abscesses, wound or respiratory infections. "There are clear transmission events from infected pets to the owners of dogs and cats ," comment the initiators of the study Anja Berger and Andreas Sing from CL-Diphtheria. Corresponding case numbers are low but the risk of animal-to-human transmission should raise public health awareness towards emerging C. ulcerans infections. The bacterium has already been detected in different native wildlife species such as red fox, wild boar and roe deer. This study provides the first evidence of diseased hedgehogs infected by C. ulcerans.

Continued

Most of countryside now devoid of hedgehogs, study finds

Something ‘fundamentally wrong’ in rural landscape, scientists say, with numbers thought to have fallen 80% since 1950s

Damian Carrington Environment editor

Thu 6 Sep 2018 14.00 BSTLast modified on Thu 6 Sep 2018 19.35 BST

A “perfect storm” of intensive farming and rising badger populations has left most of the countryside in England and Wales devoid of hedgehogs, according to the first systematic national survey.

The research used footprints left by hedgehogs in special tunnels to reveal that they were living at just 20% of the 261 sites surveyed. Hedgehogs, which topped a vote in 2013 to nominate a national species for Britain, were significantly less common where badgers were more numerous. Badgers eat hedgehogs and also compete for the beetles and worms the prickly animals consume.

However, hedgehogs and badgers lived alongside each other in half the hedgehog sites, while a quarter of all the sites had neither animal, showing the destruction of habitat such as hedgerows and coppices was also a major factor.

 “There are lots of areas in the countryside that are not suitable for hedgehogs or badgers,” said Ben Williams, at the University of Reading, who led the new work. “There is something fundamentally wrong in the rural landscape for those species and probably lots of other species as well,” such as birds and shrews.

Previous work based on visual sightings and roadkills indicated that the number of hedgehogs living in the British countryside has plummeted by more than half since 2000. Historical hedgehog numbers are hard to estimate, but scientists think populations have fallen by at least 80% since the 1950s.

Continued  

Hedgehog numbers 'down by half', warn wildlife groups

By Helen BriggsBBC News

7 February 2018

Hedgehogs are continuing to decline in the UK, according to a new report.

Surveys by citizen scientists show hedgehog numbers have fallen by about 50% since the turn of the century.

Conservation groups say they are particularly concerned about the plight of the prickly creatures in rural areas.

Figures suggest the animals are disappearing more rapidly in the countryside, as hedgerows and field margins are lost to intensive farming.

But there are signs that populations in urban areas may be recovering.

David Wembridge, surveys officer for the conservation charity, People's Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), said two surveys of the number of hedgehogs in gardens and one of numbers killed on roads show an overall decline.

But he said there is "a glimmer of hope" that measures to create habitat for hedgehogs in urban areas are paying off.

"Numbers haven't recovered yet but in urban areas at least there's an indication that numbers appear to have levelled in the last four years," he said.

In rural areas, the number of hedgehogs killed on roads has fallen by between a third and a half across Great Britain, The State of Britain's Hedgehogs 2018 report found.

Continued

Hedgehogs at risk from food scarcity, habitat loss and badgers

Experts say hedgehogs face crisis in towns and countryside, as RSPB records fewer sightings of the animals for third year in a row

  

Steven Morris

Friday 7 July 2017 18.10 BST First published on Friday 7 July 2017 16.36 BST

During the day they curl up in nests of shredded paper but when night falls those that are well enough scurry and snuffle around the old fish boxes that serve as their temporary homes.

These hedgehogs at the RSPCA’s West Hatch animal centre in Somerset have had a tough time of it. Some have tangled with dogs, strimmers, bonfires, fruit netting or vehicles; others have been brought in as tiny unseeing hoglets, having lost their parents.

The hedgehogs, which arrive here from as far afield as south Wales and Cornwall, will be nursed back to health by vets and animal carers, and released either close to where they were found or into a hog-friendly piece of West Country countryside.

They are – relatively speaking – the lucky ones. Figures out this week show a deeply worrying wider trend.

In the RSPB’s annual garden watch survey, hedgehogs were spotted in fewer gardens for the third consecutive year. One quarter of the 139,000 gardens surveyed did not record a single sighting in the whole of 2016.

Read more  

Hedgehogs continue to disappear from British gardens, wildlife survey shows

RSPB campaign urges gardeners to do one thing to help wildlife this summer after survey reveals rise and fall of familiar species

Jessica Aldred

Tuesday 14 June 201605.01 BST Last modified on Tuesday 14 June 201610.00 BST

Gardeners are being urged to do more to help hedgehogs this summer after new figures showed that fewer people than ever are seeing the once-familiar species.

Results from the from the RSPB’s citizen science survey showed that only 25% of people see hedgehogs in their garden at least once a month, around three percentage points less than last year and than in 2014.

The number of people who have never seen a hedgehog in their garden rose again to 24%, up around three percentage points since 2014. A similar survey by BBC Gardeners’ World magazine in February found the number of people who saw hedgehogs in their gardens last year had fallen by 10%.

The rapidly declining UK hedgehog population is estimated to number less than 1 million, down from more than 30 million in the 1950s. One-third of this loss is thought to have taken in the past 10 years. A 2015 report found rural populations had declined by at least a half and urban populations by up to a third since 2000. 

Their long-term but poorly understood decline is attributed to the loss and fragmentation of their habitat in Britain’s towns and countryside, death on roads, and intensive farmland that provides few good foraging or nesting sites. Rising numbers of badgers, their natural predator, have also been cited as a possible cause.

Jill Nelson, CEO of the People’s Trust for Endangered Species, said: “One reason for the hedgehog decline is lack of roaming space to find food and mates, as typically hedgehogs need to travel up to a mile a night, so interconnected continuous habitat is crucial ... Unless we are prepared to make an effort as individuals, data suggests that hedgehogs face an uncertain future.”

A petition to raise the level of legal protection by Conservative MP Oliver Colvile and backed by Britain’s hedgehog charities has now gathered nearly 38,000 signatures.

Continued … 

Hedgehogs: Almost half of people in UK have never seen much-loved mammal in their garden, survey says

The hedgehog has suffered long-term population decline with populations thought to have fallen by 30 per cent since 2003

EMILY BEAMENT 

Monday 29 February 2016

Almost half of people have never seen a hedgehog in their garden, according to a survey that suggests more declines for the garden visitor. 

Just 29 per cent of people taking part in this year’s annual wildlife survey for BBC Gardeners’ World magazine had seen a hedgehog in  their garden in the last year, down from 32 per cent the previous year. 

Only one in 10 of the 2,348 of the people who took part in the survey said they saw the much-loved mammal regularly in their gardens and 48 per cent had never seen one. 

The hedgehog has suffered a serious long-term population decline and numbers continue to drop, with populations thought to have fallen by 30 per cent since 2003 to less than one million in the UK – down from an estimated 36 million in the 1950s. 

The survey suggests people are keen to save the species, immortalised by Beatrix Potter as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle and a friend to gardeners as it feeds on pests such as caterpillars and slugs. 

Asked which one UK species they would like to save from extinction, 52 per cent said hedgehogs, beating other at-risk British species such as the sparrow, puffin, mistle thrush and hairy-footed bumblebee. 

Continued …

Britain's hedgehogs at risk from unpredictable winter weather

The warm and wet weather in December followed by a cold snap this week is causing trouble for hedgehogs, which usually hibernate at this time of year

By Sophie Jamieson

5:42PM GMT 11 Jan 2016

Britain’s hedgehog population is being put at risk by the unpredictable winter weather, with an anticipated cold snap expected to cause more problems for the prickly creatures.

Hedgehogs usually hibernate between mid-November and mid-March, but the mild winter means many may not have done so yet.

With December the wettest month on record, the animals may have struggled to find enough to eat as food supplies can be depleted in heavy rain. Others could already have been washed away and killed by floodwaters.

With a cold snap expected this week, there are fears that some of the surviving hedgehogs will be forced into hibernation while still underweight.

Fay Vass, Chief Executive of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said her organisation had received lots of calls about hedgehogs that have not hibernated yet.

“There are still hedgehogs out and about,” she said.

“A prolonged cold snap will force them into hibernation and if they’re underweight they won’t survive it.”

Hedgehog hospitals are filling up because the creatures have been more active than usual at this time of year and have become injured, or because they are underweight.

Angela Squires who runs the CRASH hedgehog hospital in Canford Heath, near Bournmouth said: "Because of this confusingly warm weather I'm still getting small underweight hogglets coming in every day and lots of phone calls I can't get round to answering.

"I'm now totally full, with no more cages or room to put them in.

"It's a nightmare, as the hedgehogs that are in now can't be released until next April, so unless they die, which rarely happens, there will never be a cage free for any new patients."

Hedgehogs have also suffered from the effects of flooding as storms hit Britain over the Christmas period.

“If they’re in hibernation or in a nest that’s flooded, they can swim, but if they’re in hibernation they may not be alert enough to save themselves and even if they do there’s not much area that’s stable for a dry nest or sources of food,” Ms Vass said.

This week will feel like the first real week of winter for many, with low temperatures, widespread frost and sprinklings of snow, according to the Met Office.

Until now the weather has been unseasonably warm - good news for some creatures, including squirrels, which have been getting noticeably fatter thanks to the an increased food supply in the mild weather.

Snow is due to affect the south of England on Thursday and Friday, with temperatures dropping below freezing overnight.

The snow is unlikely to settle on lower ground, and should not have enough impact to cause travel chaos, although motorists, pedestrians and cyclists are being warned of the risk of frost and ice on roads.

The cold could also be bad news for Britain’s plants. With some crops flowering earlier than usual, horticulture experts have warned of possible shortages of asparagus and risks to fruit supplies.

Asparagus has already sprouted in some places, but the crop could be destroyed by frost.

Guy Barter, Chief Horticultural Advisor at the Royal Horticultural Society, said: “There’s a risk with asparagus because it really doesn’t like being frosted so if it comes up and those tender young shoots are frosted it may be then no good at all.”

If the crop does survive and is harvested early, there may then be no asparagus left for the normal season in April and May.

Mr Barter said daffodils had flowered earlier than he had ever known in 20 years of working for the RHS.

“I think it’s extraordinary. There’s been nothing like this. It’s really very exciting. Plants are remarkably robust and able to react to different conditions but there are limits and it’s going to be very interesting to see.”

Continued ...

National Day of the Hedgehog: can the prickly favourite be saved from extinction?

Hedgehog numbers have dropped from more than 30 million in 1950 to under a million in 2015. Martin Fletcher meets the men trying to save them

By Martin Fletcher

12:01AM GMT 21 Nov 2015

It is dark and raining. Two figures – a man and woman – move quietly through the trees and fields surrounding Hartpury College in rural Gloucestershire. They track this way and that. With a powerful torch, they search the land around them. Periodically, the woman stops, holds an aerial above her head and listens for beeps on a transmitter.

An onlooker might mistake these two nocturnal prowlers for poachers, perhaps. Or thieves. Terrorists, even, in this day and age. But they would be wrong. The pair are simply seeking to ensure the survival of one of Britain’s most endangered animals: the humble hedgehog.

"A new estimate released today says that their numbers have declined by a further half in rural areas, and a third in urban areas"

The man is Hugh Warwick, the country’s most prominent hedgehog champion. The 49-year-old ecologist admits to having conducted a ‘passionate affair’ with the spiky little creatures for three decades. From Devon to the Outer Hebrides, he has spent countless nights tramping the countryside in search of them. He has written two books on them, including the definitive history of hedgehogs in art, music, literature, philosophy and the media.

He is the public face of the 11,000-member British Hedgehog Preservation Society. He speaks about hedgehogs at schools, universities and Women’s Institute meetings up and down the country. He has a hedgehog tattooed on his ankle. He once journeyed to a remote region of central China in a fruitless search for his namesake, Hemiechinus hughi, a hedgehog so rare that only 12 sightings had been recorded in the past century.

Continued ...

Hedgehog numbers halve in rural areas in just 15 years as habitats are destroyed

New study finds worrying decline in hedgehog population is continuing, with less than one million of the creatures left in the UK

By Emily Gosden

12:01AM GMT 21 Nov 2015

Hedgehog numbers have more than halved in rural Britain in the past 15 years, as intensive farming and poor hedgerow management destroys their habitats, a major new study has found.

Urban hedgehogs have fared only slightly better, with the fencing-in and concreting-over of city gardens contributing to a one-third decline in numbers since the year 2000.

"Obviously it’s bad seeing dead hedgehogs, but it’s generally a bad sign if you don’t see dead hedgehogs on the road in an area, because it means there aren’t that many in the surrounding countryside."

Reliable estimates of hedgehog numbers are hard to come by but there are now believed to be less than a million of the creatures left in the UK, based on evidence of population decline since the last comprehensive scientific study, which put the figure at 1.55 million in 1995.

The State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2015 report, by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES), concludes that the rate of decline has continued in both urban and rural areas since its last report in 2011.

Although hedgehogs being run over may also be contributing to the fall in numbers, Henry Johnson, Hedgehog Officer at PTES, said the organisations were worried by research data showing a drop in sightings of roadkill hedgehogs.

"Obviously it’s bad seeing dead hedgehogs, but it’s generally a bad sign if you don’t see dead hedgehogs on the road in an area, because it means there aren’t that many in the surrounding countryside," he said.

The report suggests manmade activities to destroy hedgehog habitats are largely to blame for the losses and exonerates badgers – despite the fact numbers of badgers, which kill and eat hedgehogs as well as competing for other food sources, have increased.

"The downward hedgehog trend is the same whether badgers are present or not," it concludes.

Previous studies have suggested hedgehogs thrived in areas where badgers were culled.

Read on ...

Last hedgehogs in central London 'survived by learning to avoid roads'

Small population in Regents Park is clinging on and appears to have learnt to keep clear of the busy roads that are one of the main causes of their decline

Lewis Smith

Tuesday 2 June 2015 08.57 BSTLast modified on Tuesday 2 June 201511.11 BST

The last hedgehogs to live in a central London park have survived because they have learnt to avoid busy roads, a study suggests.

Hedgehogs were once common across the UK but have suffered a steep decline in the past 60 years, with deaths on the road one of the biggest problems.

Central London, with its heavy traffic, has experienced one of the biggest declines with few hedgehogs now surviving there. In Regents Park, however, a small population is clinging on and they appear to have learnt to keep clear of the busy roads that are one of the main causes of their decline.

Clare Bowen, of the Royal Parks Foundation, said: “We’ve tagged a number of animals and we’ve got a very good idea of where they are going. We don’t have any indication of them leaving the park at all or crossing any of the main roads.

“We don’t have any records of squashed hedgehogs around Regents Park. All this would suggest they steer clear of busy roads.”

In the other four Royal Parks – St James’s, Hyde and Green Park, along with Kensington Gardens – none are known to survive. In the 1970s hedgehogs were known to live in all five of the main central London parks.

Continued ...

Hedgehogs' inky paw prints point to sparse distribution

By Michelle WarwickerBBC Nature

Hedgehogs are more thinly spread in the UK than previously believed, a study using ink pads to record their paw prints has revealed.

The nocturnal mammals were found at only 39% of sites surveyed.

Experts and volunteers set up tunnels baited with tinned sausages. Hedgehogs had to walk over ink pads to reach the food, leaving their prints on paper.

The method allowed researchers to identify hedgehog presence with almost complete accuracy for the first time.

The research, which was carried out by scientists from Nottingham Trent University, the University of Reading and The Mammal Society, is published in the journal Mammal Review.

Hedgehog populations in the UK are believed to be in rapid decline.

The new study builds a picture about how they are distributed in urban and rural areas. The finding that hedgehogs were only present in 39% of locations visited was "lower than anticipated", said research team member Dr Richard Yarnell, from Nottingham Trent University's School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences.

"Historically we thought that hedgehogs were pretty well distributed across the country," he told BBC Nature.

Continued ...

Hedgehogs' inky paw prints point to sparse distribution

17 September 2014 Last updated at 02:30

By Michelle Warwicker

BBC Nature

Hedgehogs are more thinly spread in the UK than previously believed, a study using ink pads to record their paw prints has revealed.

The nocturnal mammals were found at only 39% of sites surveyed.

Experts and volunteers set up tunnels baited with tinned sausages. Hedgehogs had to walk over ink pads to reach the food, leaving their prints on paper.

The method allowed researchers to identify hedgehog presence with almost complete accuracy for the first time.

The research, which was carried out by scientists from Nottingham Trent University, the University of Reading and The Mammal Society, is published in the journal Mammal Review.

Hedgehog populations in the UK are believed to be in rapid decline.

The new study builds a picture about how they are distributed in urban and rural areas. The finding that hedgehogs were only present in 39% of locations visited was "lower than anticipated", said research team member Dr Richard Yarnell, from Nottingham Trent University's School of Animal, Rural and Environmental Sciences.

Read on ...

RSPB launches a new nutritious treat to feed your garden hedgehogs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hungry, Hungry Hedgehogs!

RSPB launches a new nutritious treat to feed your garden hedgehogs

Morwenna Griffiths, speaking for the RSPB in the South West said, "As temperatures gradually rise, and nature begins to unfurl, our garden friends – the hedgehogs – also stir from their spiky-ball hibernation.  Sadly, it’s estimated that UK hedgehogs have declined by a third in the last ten years so it's vital that we do our little bit to give them a home in our own gardens this year.

 

“To help supplement the hedgehogs’ natural diet the RSPB has launched a new food specifically designed to meet their nutritional needs.  Cranberry Crunch is made from top quality ingredients, including: premium suet pellets; sunflower hearts; peanut nibs; dried mealworms; and dried cranberries.

“Cranberry Crunch is available at RSPB retail outlets such as the RSPB Shop at Darts Farm, Devon and our shop in Bath (it's available online too).  This food provides a healthier alternative to the old wives’ tale of bread and milk - which must always be avoided as it causes the hedgehogs stomach upset.  Small amounts of cake, biscuits and pastry as well as fresh and dried fruits and cooked vegetables can also be used as a tempting hedgehog treat.

 

“Many modern gardens have less “wild” space than they used to due to decking and paving, so Mr and Mrs Tiggywinkle now struggle to find natural shelter in hedges and leaf piles.  Planting a garden hedge helps enormously – the clue is in the hogs’ name – hedges are not only homes for ‘hedge’ hogs, but also provide habitat for nesting birds and a host of insects and small mammals.

“You can also help these prickly critters by setting up a permanent hedgehog shelter in your garden which are available from a range of outlets including the RSPB.

“Don’t forget having a hedgehog move-in can be a great advantage to any keen gardener, as they just love to munch their way through all of your pesky slugs and snails.”

The RSPB warns against using chemicals in the garden as slug pellets can be particularly detrimental.  Use non-toxic brands when putting preservative on garden sheds, fences and other wood furniture around the garden as hedgehogs often lick new smells and surfaces.

For more information visit: http://homes.rspb.org.uk/

Ends

For further information and to arrange an interview, please contact:

Tony Whitehead, RSPB Press Officer, 01392 453754, 07872 414365

Photographs:

Images to support this story are available from RSPB Images.

To access an image, please click on the hyperlink below and then enter the user name and password when prompted.

https://www.rspb-images.com/respages/storysetsignon.aspx?key=819158de-787f-497b-95e9-f54f1a941433

User Name: hedgehogsw

Password: hedgehog1

NOTES FOR EDITORS -

Tips to Help Protect Hedgehogs

·         Hedgehogs habitually hide themselves in piles of leaves, grass cuttings, pampas grass, compost heaps and bags of rubbish.  Always check these before burning, cutting, strimming, mowing, putting a fork into or disposing of them.

·         Many plastic items can trap, ensnare or cut a hedgehog.  These include netting, plastic can holders, large necked bottles, plastic pots and barbed wire.

·         Hedgehogs can also easily fall down holes, into water troughs, ponds, swimming pools and other types of water vessel.  If you cannot prevent them from falling in, then make sure there is always a way for them to get out.

·         Dogs can injure hedgehogs, so make sure you know what your dog is doing when in the garden late at night.

·         If you accidentally disturb an active hedgehog nest, carefully replace the material.  The hedgehog will soon repair or move the nest elsewhere.  If there are young in the nest, avoid touching them.  Similarly, if it is a hibernating adult, avoid waking it.  Should it wake, you may want to leave it some food nearby.

Hedgehogs given GPS 'backpacks' to boost survival rates

Hedgehogs which have been nursed back to health are being fitted with GPS "backpacks" to find out how they go on to survive in the wild.

The 24 hedgehogs, cared for at Shepreth Wildlife Park in Cambridgeshire, will have their movements tracked.

The animals will be released in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire on Wednesday.

Rebecca Willers, chairwoman of Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity, hopes the study can eventually boost survival rates of rehabilitated hedgehogs.

The £150 devices weigh just over 1.8oz (50g) and have been designed for the project by Dr David Wallis of Ecometry Technologies.

Continued

Hedgehogs emerging from hibernation very late in 2013

Hedgehogs emerging a month later than usual

April 2013. Latest results from the BTO Garden BirdWatch survey have revealed that British Hedgehogs are emerging from hibernation very late this spring. This weekly survey, which covers mammals as well as birds, shows that Hedgehog emergence is roughly a month behind what was seen in 2011 and 2012. The long winter may also have led to increased levels of overwinter mortality.

Difficult winter

The latest results from the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Garden BirdWatch show that Hedgehog emergence is a month behind where it was in 2011 and 2012, suggesting that it is likely to have been a particularly difficult winter for this declining species. The weekly ‘reporting rate' graph (below) shows how the cold weather of February and March held emergence back, underlining that Hedgehogs are only now emerging from hibernation.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/hedgehogs-2013.html

Hedgehog population in dramatic decline

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 quintessentially 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 estimates of around 2m in the mid-1990s and 36m in the 1950s. David Wembridge, PTES's surveys officer, said the fall should "ring alarm bells."

Ecologists stress more work needs to be done to pinpoint the reasons behind their decline, but said likely candidates are habitat loss, poor management of hedgerows and fragmentation of habitat, due to new roads, housing and other developments. Tens of thousands are killed by road traffic each year.

Climate change, which increases the likelihood of extreme weather such as heavy rainfall that can flood the homes of hibernating badgers, is also considered a potential factor.

Hugh Warwick, author and spokesman for British Hedgehog Preservation Society, told the Guardian: "The most obvious thing is habitat loss. But the biggest thing is habitat fragmentation. It comes in many different forms - you put a big road through the middle of a hedgehog habitat, and then a crossroads, and the hedgehog habitat becomes smaller and smaller. In each of those habitats, the risks become more dangerous, for example if you have an outbreak of parasites."

The hedgerows which give the species their name were no longer being grubbed up, he said, but were not as "rich" or "vibrant" in the worms and other food eaten by hedgehogs due to poor management. Warwick said that at talks he gave to Women's Institute meetings in recent years, he was regularly approached by people asking him why they were seeing fewer hedgehogs in their gardens.

Continued: http://news.uk.msn.com/guardian/hedgehog-population-in-dramatic-decline

Hedgehog rescues rise due to cold snaps

The number of hedgehogs being rescued by the Scottish SPCA has increased by almost 10% in the last 12 months.

The National Wildlife Rescue Centre in Clackmannanshire said 707 of the spiny mammals were taken in during 2012, compared with 647 the previous year and 650 in 2010.

The animal charity said the creatures had been victims of sudden cold snaps.

Already this year, the SSPCA centre at Fishcross is caring for 27 hedgehogs struggling with the low temperatures.

Staff said they were preparing to welcome more of the animals as forecasts for poor weather conditions continue.

Weather threats

Centre manager Colin Seddon said: "We think the sudden cold snaps we've experienced during what has been a relatively mild winter has caught a lot of these hedgehogs off guard.

"They may have thought it was warm enough to be out and then, when the temperature dropped suddenly, they were left vulnerable to the elements.

"Another factor is heavy rain spells as these will have washed some of the hedgehogs away from their nests."

He added: "We are continuing to take in hedgehogs due to the return of snow and freezing temperatures.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-21127846

More on the plight of the WESTERN HEDGEHOG in the UK - could its demise really be down to the increase in Badgers

After processing Richard Broughton's comments and trying to understand the science behind his arguments, I phoned up one of the organisations charged with looking after many hundreds of injured, sick or poisoned Hedgehogs to see what they had to say. Having not the time nor the inclination to do an in-depth study before I put pen to paper unlike Richard, I have to admit that my statements were based on conjecture and a falasy of what I had come to believe was the key factor in their decline. It does look as though my comments were baseless - and I commend Richard for quickly pointing this out in a highly reasonable fashion. I raised the issue of slug pellets and was surprised at how little affect they do seem to be having on the UK Hedgehog population. I cannot thank the organisation highly enough and they spent some 40 minutes discussing the plight with me, and emailed me a lot of literature on the subject. This is a summary of the key points that were raised and gleaned from the respective information -:


The Mammal Society and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society now believe the UK population of Hedgehogs has crashed in recent years and it has even been suggested that they could become extinct in many places before the end of the decade. Little work has been done on the reasons for this steep decline, but it is very likely that loss of habitat, combined with the relentless toll of accidents, is a major factor in their decline. A number of reasons are put forward for the alarming and steep decline. One is intensive farming, with the loss of hedgerows and the increase in pesticides, depriving hedgehogs of their prey of slugs and insects. Another is increased vehicle numbers leading to increased road kills, and a third is urban development, with tidier gardens and better fences meaning urban populations of hedgehogs cannot move about, become fragmented and die out.

Read on:  

https://dub002.mail.live.com/default.aspx?id=64855#n=295950028&fid=1&mid=a4a649aa-3457-11e2-b0f6-002264c1546c