Once a familiar and well-loved visitor to our gardens, hedgehog numbers have fallen significantly in the last few decades.
There has been a startling decline of 95% since the 1950s , with one in three lost since 2000.
Threats to hedgehogs come mostly from humans. In rural areas, our farmland increasingly lacks the diversity of habitats hedgehogs need and the food they rely on.
In towns and cities green spaces are lost to development, paved over or increasingly fragmented. Hedgehogs are also very prone to road traffic accidents.
Urban areas such as Kingsway in Gloucester and Swindon Village and Charlton Kings in Cheltenham provide potential for protecting and strengthening existing hedgehog populations.
Hedgehog
(C) Tom Marshall
Hedgehog Way ...
... is bringing communities together to improve how habitats are connected to benefit hedgehogs.
Communities will improve linkages for hedgehogs between gardens and green spaces, for example by creating hedgehogs holes in fences, and residents will work with their neighbours to survey and track hedgehogs and improve habitats.
If you live in Kingsway, Gloucester or Charlton Kings or Swindon Village in Cheltenham and would like to know more about how you can help hedgehogs, please contact Georgia: georgia.spooner@gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk.
Hedgehog Way is supported by funding from the People's Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society
