Hedgehog Welfare: Urban Decline and Conservation

UK hedgehog populations have declined by over 50% since 2000. Urban hedgehogs face threats from roads, garden hazards, and habitat fragmentation that cause significant individual welfare harm.

Key Facts

UK hedgehog numbers have declined from an estimated 30 million in the 1950s to under 1 million today.
Road mortality is the leading cause of hedgehog death, with an estimated 100,000-335,000 killed annually.
Garden hazards including strimmers, netting, bonfires, and garden chemicals kill tens of thousands of hedgehogs annually.
Hedgehog Highway — a 13cm x 13cm gap under garden fences — enables hedgehog movement across multiple gardens.
Hedgehogs travel up to 2km per night foraging; large gardens alone are insufficient for their ranging needs.

Welfare Considerations

Urban hedgehogs face a gauntlet of human-created hazards that cause acute welfare harm at high frequency. Strimmer injuries cause severe lacerations requiring intensive veterinary care. Garden netting causes entanglement injuries. Bonfire building over autumn and winter creates lethal traps for hibernating hedgehogs. Road crossings cause traumatic death for hundreds of thousands annually. These are primarily preventable harms requiring simple human behavior changes. Garden hedgehog-proofing and Hedgehog Highway installation represent some of the highest-impact, lowest-cost wildlife welfare improvements available to individual householders.

What You Can Do

Create a Hedgehog Highway in your garden fence — a 13cm square gap under the fence.
Check for hedgehogs before using strimmers, bonfires, and garden machinery.
Remove or lift garden netting at night to prevent hedgehog entanglement.
Provide shallow water and species-appropriate food — meat-based cat or dog food — in your garden.
Support the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Hedgehog Street campaign.