Urban Wildlife Welfare: Foxes, Hedgehogs, and Coexistence in Our Cities

Urban environments support surprisingly high densities of wildlife, but also create unique welfare challenges. Understanding urban wildlife welfare helps us be better neighbours to the animals sharing our cities.

Key Facts

Urban fox populations in UK cities have grown significantly since the 1940s — London alone is estimated to have around 10,000-15,000 urban foxes
Road traffic is the leading cause of death in urban foxes and hedgehogs — an estimated 100,000-300,000 hedgehogs are killed on UK roads annually
Hedgehog populations have declined by over 50% in rural Britain since 2000, while urban populations have shown relative stability, making gardens a conservation refuge
Urban foxes and hedgehogs suffer from entanglement in garden netting, injuries from strimmer blades, and poisoning from slug pellets and rodenticides
Feeding urban wildlife is controversial — it can support animals through resource-poor periods but may also concentrate populations and increase disease transmission risk
Garden boundaries with hedgehog-sized gaps at the base allow hedgehog movement between gardens — a 13cm by 13cm gap is the minimum recommended
Light pollution disrupts nocturnal wildlife behaviour including hedgehog foraging timing and migratory bird navigation

Welfare Considerations

Urban wildlife exists in a landscape shaped almost entirely by human decisions — about roads, gardens, buildings, lighting, and waste management. The welfare of urban foxes and hedgehogs is therefore substantially within human influence in a way that wilderness wildlife is not. Road mortality is the most significant welfare and population impact for both species in urban areas, and it is a consequence of infrastructure decisions that could be modified. Garden practices — including the use of slug pellets, netting ponds, and leaving bonfires undisturbed — also directly determine welfare outcomes for individual animals. The accessibility of urban wildlife makes it a powerful entry point for engaging people with animal welfare more broadly, and gardens managed for wildlife welfare provide measurable population support alongside rewarding human-wildlife connection.

What You Can Do

Create hedgehog highway gaps (13cm x 13cm) in all fences and walls between gardens — this single intervention has substantial population connectivity benefits
Stop using metaldehyde or methiocarb slug pellets — switch to ferric phosphate products or physical barriers
Check for hedgehogs and other wildlife before strimming garden edges or lighting bonfires — a few minutes of checking prevents injuries and deaths
Report road-casualty wildlife to the local wildlife hospital and contribute data to national road casualty monitoring schemes
Reduce garden lighting near wildlifes's primary foraging period — motion-sensitive lighting is a better compromise than permanent illumination
Never attempt to keep urban foxes or hedgehogs as pets — they are wild animals with specific welfare needs that domestic settings cannot meet
Join local wildlife surveys and citizen science programmes — data collected by urban residents drives evidence-based conservation and welfare policy