Wild Hedgehog Urban Welfare: Garden Hazards and Support

Hedgehogs face serious welfare threats from urban hazards including garden netting, litter, pesticides, and road traffic as their natural habitat becomes increasingly fragmented.

Key Facts

UK hedgehog populations have declined by over 50 percent since the year 2000
Garden netting entangles hedgehogs causing fatal injuries from struggling to escape
Slug pellets containing metaldehyde poison hedgehogs that eat contaminated slugs
Roads kill hundreds of thousands of hedgehogs annually in the UK alone
Hedgehogs travel up to two kilometers per night and are blocked by solid garden fencing
Hedgehog-friendly gardens with access holes between properties support foraging populations

Welfare Considerations

Hedgehogs navigating urban environments face a daily gauntlet of human-created hazards. Garden netting left at ground level catches foraging hedgehogs, who then injure or kill themselves struggling to escape. Metaldehyde slug pellets kill hedgehogs indirectly through contaminated prey. Roads represent a massive mortality source for animals whose defensive strategy of rolling into a ball is ineffective against vehicles. Each of these welfare harms is directly addressable through simple changes to human behavior — using wildlife-friendly netting, switching to non-toxic slug control, and creating permeable garden fencing. Urban hedgehog welfare represents one of the most accessible wildlife welfare interventions available to ordinary people.

What You Can Do

Create a hedgehog-sized access hole (13x13cm) in your garden fence to enable safe movement
Remove or raise garden netting after use to prevent hedgehog entanglement
Switch to non-toxic slug control methods — hedgehogs are natural slug predators
Drive carefully on rural and suburban roads at night when hedgehogs are most active
Provide supplemental food and water in your garden during dry summer periods