Road traffic is now the primary cause of hedgehog mortality in England — infrastructure and driver behaviour changes could prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths annually.
Road traffic mortality in hedgehogs creates individual welfare harm at the moment of impact — and often prolonged suffering in injured animals that crawl to roadside verges and die slowly from internal injuries without being found. The population-level welfare consequence is severe: a population losing 20% of individuals annually to road mortality cannot sustain itself in most suburban landscapes. Infrastructure solutions — crossing tunnels, improved verge connectivity — address the structural conflict between hedgehog movement ecology and road design. Driver awareness and reduced speeds in known hedgehog habitats at dawn and dusk reduce individual mortality during peak risk periods.