Hedgehog hibernation is a critical survival strategy whose timing and quality is being disrupted by climate change, with welfare consequences from premature or interrupted hibernation.
Climate-disrupted hibernation is an emerging welfare threat to hedgehogs that amplifies existing population pressures. Hedgehogs that hibernate with insufficient fat reserves starve during winter. Those roused by warm spells cannot find food and return to hibernation depleted — potentially below the threshold for winter survival. The welfare of individual hedgehogs found active in cold weather (below 5 degrees Celsius) or out during daylight in October-March is critical — these animals typically need urgent intervention. Providing autumn supplementary food and suitable hibernation habitat (undisturbed leaf piles, log stacks, and hedgehog houses) directly addresses the welfare consequences of a changing climate for this vulnerable species.