People are being urged to record hedgehog sightings to help save them. The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester, and North Merseyside is asking people to record hedgehog sightings to "Help a Hog" this autumn. Hedgehog populations have been declining in the UK, but gardens could provide a refuge.
Rural populations of hedgehogs have declined by 30 to 75 per cent in different areas, but the urban hedgehog population is showing signs of stabilising. By recording where you have, or even where you haven’t, seen a hedgehog, people can help Lancashire Wildlife Trust to build up a fuller picture of how the population is faring across the region. If you haven’t seen a hedgehog so far this year where you would usually see one, this is a hedgehog 'not-spot' and is just as informative to track their behaviours and habitat changes as reported 'hot spots'.
The trust received 796 responses in total last year, reporting sightings of 1,233 hedgehogs. The sighting numbers overall were down 33 per cent from 1,850 hedgehogs in 2022. With gardens becoming increasingly more important as habitats for hedgehogs in the UK, gathering this information will allow the trust to understand where conservation work needs to be targeted and raise awareness of what we can all do to aid their population recovery.
Hedgehogs can travel more than one mile each night looking for food and mates, and with the decline in hedgerows and their natural food of insects and invertebrates in rural areas, gardens can .
