Wild Hedgehog Welfare: Garden Hazards and Conservation

Hedgehogs face multiple welfare threats in modern gardens and agricultural landscapes. Simple garden modifications can significantly reduce hedgehog injury and support declining populations.

Key Facts

UK hedgehog populations have declined by approximately 50% since the 1990s due to habitat fragmentation, agricultural intensification, and garden hazards
Garden netting causes hedgehog entanglement — hedgehogs that roll up in loose netting can die of strangulation or starvation
Slug pellets containing metaldehyde and methiocarb poison hedgehogs that eat contaminated slugs
Bonfire piles are favourite hedgehog hibernation sites — undisturbed bonfires risk incinerating hibernating individuals
Garden ponds without escape ramps drown hedgehogs that fall in while foraging at night
Connected garden networks — hedgehog highways — are essential for hedgehog movement between territories

Welfare Considerations

Hedgehog welfare in suburban and rural landscapes is affected by a constellation of hazards that are individually minor but collectively drive severe population decline. Each garden hazard — loose netting, pond without ramp, bonfire pile, slug pellets — represents an acute welfare event for individual hedgehogs: entanglement causes slow death from strangulation or starvation; metaldehyde poisoning causes neurological convulsions before death; drowning in garden ponds is prolonged. The welfare significance of these events is not merely individual — at a population that has already halved, each preventable death reduces the viability of local populations that support regional genetic diversity. The solutions are almost all simple and free: cutting holes in fences, removing netting before dark, adding pond ramps, switching to ferric phosphate slug pellets, and checking bonfire piles before lighting. No single action requires significant expense or effort, but widespread adoption across millions of gardens would have genuine population-level impact.

What You Can Do

Cut a 13cm square hole in your garden fence to create a hedgehog highway connecting your garden to neighbours
Install a ramp or sloped rock in your garden pond to allow hedgehogs to climb out if they fall in
Switch from metaldehyde slug pellets to ferric phosphate alternatives — equally effective and safe for hedgehogs
Check bonfires before lighting and build them just before burning rather than days in advance
Remove garden netting from ground level at night when hedgehogs are active and at risk of entanglement