There's a wonderful piece in today's Guardian newspaper about the plight of the hedgehog. I'd urge you to read it, if you have time, as it encapsulates the dilemmas faced by anyone trying to encourage wildlife in their gardens. It includes the shocking statistic that "the hedgehogs of Britain are dying out at a rate of about a fifth of the population every four years. By 2025, they will be gone". Why? The reasons aren't fully known, but concreting over front gardens, garden makeovers and an increase in traffic haven't helped:
The policy of building on brownfield sites, and the general increase in the busyness of urban lives, has probably removed a great deal of hedgehog habitat and cut up what remains into small pieces that may not be enough to sustain a hedgehog population. Nigel Reeve says 'It is all a story of tidying up, fragmentation and poor connectivity. Hedgehogs love the interstices in cities, the rough brambly places, where they can hide up in the day time or in winter. We need to defragment the cities for these animals, leave more of the mess for them."
Although allotments aren't mentioned specifically in the article, it does occur to me that they must constitute an important hedgehog habitat, particularly in many urban areas, as there is usually no shortage of "rough brambly areas" on the average allotment site. I've occasionally spotted a "hedgie" when I've made an after-dark visit to my plot, snuffling around looking for food, and I hope there are many more that I don't see. When driving about after dark, particularly around dusk, I always keep an eye out for a small shape bimbling across the road: just by slowing down a bit I've been able to avoid hitting several.
I've also created a special hedgehog-friendly area at the back of my compost bins, next to the abandoned plot behind me, where there's a big, rarely disturbed stack of branches and leaves, deep enough to provide a dry place for hibernation. I hope there's a hedgehog in there, snoozing the winter away.
I have them in my (fairly small) urban garden. I suspect that is a reflection of how tidy (or not as the case may be) it is. One of my great pleasures in life is sitting outside having a drink on a summers evening with bats overhead and the hedgehogs (collectively christened Russell) doing the rounds. They do bimble, don't they ? They can bimble at some speed mind, when they want to. And can be very noisy when fighting over territory or lady hedgehogs (as happened in my raised beds last summer). Anyway, enough hedgehog waffle.
Posted by: David L | January 19, 2006 at 03:55 PM
Funny ... when we moved in, we had 3 hedgehogs who stayed with us year round. Then, when we were away one Christmas, one drowned in our 'pond' (don't know what he was doing out at Christmas) - and we've not had resident hedgehogs since. They pass through the garden quite often in the summer, but never seem to stay.
Posted by: Liz | March 17, 2008 at 01:56 PM