Urban hedgehog welfare depends on connected garden networks that allow movement, foraging, and breeding across fragmented urban landscapes. Understanding network ecology guides practical conservation action.
Urban hedgehog welfare is a network problem requiring coordinated community action rather than individual garden management alone. Isolated hedgehogs confined to single gardens face chronic stress from territorial frustration and eventually local extinction as breeding populations are too small to maintain. Connected garden networks support stable, reproducing populations where individuals can range freely, find mates, and access sufficient invertebrate prey. Community engagement through Hedgehog Street and similar initiatives creates the neighbourhood-scale connectivity that individual action cannot achieve alone.