European hedgehogs are in serious decline, and road traffic is a major cause. Understanding the scale and solutions helps advocates protect this charismatic insectivore.
Hedgehog road mortality represents a welfare crisis that is both significant in scale and amenable to local action. Each road casualty may represent hours of suffering if the animal is injured rather than killed instantly. Hedgehog populations are declining so rapidly that without intervention, extinction from significant parts of their UK range is possible within decades. Unlike many wildlife welfare issues, the solutions are accessible to ordinary people: garden connectivity through hedgehog highways, reduced pesticide use to maintain prey availability, and creating wildlife-friendly garden habitats. Driver behavior changes in areas of known hedgehog activity — reduced speed at dawn and dusk — could prevent thousands of individual deaths per year.