Hedgehogs’ survival fight as sightings fall again: Fewer than half of people who responded to survey reported seeing one within the past year

Only one in eight reported regularly spotting a hedgehog in their garden
Drop blamed on reduction of natural habitat and increasing number of badgers
Underdevelopment in towns and cities is destroying hedgerows where they live

Published: 19:53 EST, 5 February 2017 | Updated: 20:11 EST, 5 February 2017

e-mail

View
comments

They were once a common sight in gardens, parks and hedgerows.

But there are fresh fears the hedgehog is dying out after fewer than half of people reported having seen one in the last year.

The annual survey for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine revealed just one in eight reported having regularly spotted one in their garden while around a third said they hadn’t seen one for a long time.

A survey found that fewer than half of people reported seeing a hedgehog in the last year

The creatures’ plight has been blamed on a reduction of their natural habitat and the increasing numbers of their natural predator, the badger.

Overdevelopment in towns and cities, combined with the intensification of agriculture and growing field sizes in the countryside, is destroying hedgerows where they live.

But the survey suggested people were keen to save the species with 60 per cent of those asked actively taking action to help its plight.

More than a third of the 2,619 people who responded said they had avoided using slug pellets and had deliberately left leaves and twigs for shelter.

A quarter had checked for the mammals before strimming and more than a fifth checked bonfires before lighting them.

The worrying findings come after wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan warned the well-loved prickly creatures were dying out ‘at the same rate as tigers’.

She said the creatures, immortalised by Beatrix Potter as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, were in ‘real danger’ of becoming extinct in some areas within a decade.

It follows a serious long term decline, with populations thought to have fallen by 30 per cent since 2003, to less than a million in the UK.

The annual survey for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine revealed the percentage of people who reported seeing different animals in their garden

This is down from an estimated 36 million in the 1950s.

The survey also revealed that some birds were faring worse in 2016, with the number of people spotting house sparrows and starlings both down.

Sightings of butterflies, including tortoiseshells and peacocks, also fell.

Lucy Hall, BBC Gardeners’ World editor, said gardeners were increasingly acting to help wildlife, but the questioned whether it was enough to halt this sharp decline in numbers.

‘Our message to all garden owners is to see your outdoor space as a small-scale nature reserve - part of a network of gardens that link to make a great big, valuable habitat,’ she said.

‘Seen like this, every small step you can make to help wildlife really does make a big difference when we all act together.’