Here it is, our second charity collaboration: Please give a warm welcome to  People's Trust For Endangered Species (PTES) ptes.org.

Buy a hedgehog bag from Bags For Biodiversity and 10% of the sale price will be donated to People's Trust For Endangered Species, to support their hedgehog conservation work.

Who are PTES?

For those of you that love hedgehogs, this is going to be a real treat! PTES has been standing up for wildlife for over 40 years and are known for their collaborations with scientists, conservationists, landowners, other charities and NGO's as well as the public. All their work helps to protect delicate ecosystems and support the individual species that depend on that environment. They provide connection between habitats, allowing populations to expand and disperse. Furthermore, everything they do is based on scientific evidence. 

Their values align with those of Bags For Biodiversity:

• collaboration,
• science based,
• improving biodiversity 
• providing simple solutions and ways that people can help. 

My Link to PTES and Hedgehogs

I worked with this charity for many years, checking the health of hazel dormice prior to re-introducing them to areas they once thrived in.This reduces the risk of them transmitting diseases that would harm other rodent populations.

But it's PTES's work with hedgehogs that I want to promote.

I first fell in love with this charismatic, inquisitive animal about 25 years ago, while working in one of the RSPCA wildlife hospitals. Nursing these animals through trauma and infections (some induced by humans); I got to see their individual characters. 

Now their numbers are decreasing in the countryside, but we have the opportunity to collaborate with PTES to help their recovery.

Why Do We Love Hedgehogs?

The humble hedgehog has been voted Britain's favourite wild animal on many occasions. But why do we love these animals so much? Many of us were introduced to them in childhood in Beatrix Potter's book - "Mrs Tiggywinkle", or Rudyard Kipling's "Stickly Prickly" in his Just So stories.

Anyone who is a gardener knows the hedgehog is their friend and if they are lucky enough to have them in their garden, they will be found at night foraging for slugs, snails, beetles and caterpillars.

                        

Physical Facts

Their name comes from their original habitat, (hedgerows) and their long snout and snuffling hog-like sounds they make. Uncurled they are about 20-25cm long and covered in approximately 5000-7000 hollow, keratin spines. When threatened, they roll into a tight ball, protecting their face, limbs and abdomen, which are not covered in protective spines. Their claws make them great at digging and climbing and as nocturnal animals they rely on their nose and ears as their eyesight is poor.

Threats and Conservation

Sadly the UK's favourite little mammal is in serious decline, especially in rural habitats.

Every year People's Trust For Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) produce a report - "The State of Britain's Hedgehogs". This shows that rural hedgehog populations have decreased by 8.3% a year for the past 2 decades . Our British hedgehog is now classed as "Vulnerable to Extinction" in the British Red List of Mammals. The report also showed that urban hedgehogs are doing better than their rural counterparts and their numbers are not decreasing so quickly. This may be because more of the insects they feed on prefer grass gardens and parks to intensively managed large fields, with little shelter. 

 Why Is This Happening?

• Loss and damage of suitable habitat such as hedgerows and woodland, which provide food and shelter and connectivity.
• The use of pesticides on farms and in gardens reduces the hedgehog's food supply.
• In urban areas, impermeable fencing, loss of greenery in gardens and increasing development prevent hedgehogs from moving around their range and reduce the food available. 

Where Can You Find Out More? 

hedgehog street campaign

Hedgehog Street is a campaign run by the People's Trust For Endangered Species and British Hedgehog Preservation Society. and is part of a wider campaign to help hedgehogs. The four arms to their strategy for hedgehogs are:

• Funding research on hedgehog demography and behaviour 
• Working with developers to ensure small gaps, known as "hedgehog highways" are left in fences in new housing developments, which give hedgehogs access to mates, habitat and food. 
• Education for the public, to highlight the problems and ensure people are equipped with simple ways they can help.
•  Outreach and engagement

The site gives you lots of interesting facts about hedgehogs in addition to showing you ways that you can make your garden more accessible and provide better habitats for hedgehogs. Hedgehogs can travel a mile at night and need neighbourhoods of linked up gardens to survive.

A Good News Story

PTES and BHPS have been spreading awareness about the plight of hedgehogs and encouraging everyone to make their garden more accessible to hedgehogs and provide more resources for them when they visit.  By making a 13 x 13cm hole in the bottom of your fence (too small for most pets to get through) and asking your neighbours to do the same, you can connect a network of gardens. Many schools, neighbourhoods, developers and landowners have taken up this challenge and been provided with toolkits to make their land more hedgehog friendly. If you want to make a difference and help to bring hedgehogs back from the brink; become a Hedgehog Champion and spread the word to friends, families and businesses. Even if you don't have a garden, there are still things you can do.

Little Things that Make a Big Difference

1. Pledge to make a hole in your garden fence, or wall and map it on the Big Hedgehog Map
2. Learn about the hedgehogs and how you can help them, then tell someone else.
3. register on Hedgehog Street and become a Hedgehog Champion: you can then access loads of free resources that will help tell your neighbours and friends about hedgehogs, why they are in trouble and what we can do to help.
4. Donate to PTES and help support their work.
5. Buy a hedgehog bag from Bags For Biodiversity and 10% will go to PTES to help continue their work to bring species back from the brink.

Further resources

If you want to read the State of Britain's Hedgehogs 2022 report- look here