Urban hedgehogs face significant welfare threats from garden hazards, habitat fragmentation, and declining invertebrate prey — but simple garden modifications can meaningfully improve their survival.
Urban hedgehogs are one of the few wild mammals that benefit directly from informed human behaviour at the individual garden level. The welfare harms they face in urban environments — entanglement, poisoning, strimmer injury, habitat fragmentation — are largely preventable through simple garden management changes. Providing a hedgehog highway, a hibernation shelter, and avoiding pesticides costs little and can directly improve the welfare and survival of individual hedgehogs visiting your garden. The cumulative impact of thousands of gardens making these changes creates the connected habitat network hedgehogs need to thrive. This is one of the most accessible direct wildlife welfare interventions available to urban residents.