Wild Hedgehog Garden Connectivity and Highway Holes

Hedgehogs need to travel through multiple gardens each night. Simple modifications to garden boundaries can reconnect fragmented habitat and significantly improve hedgehog welfare.

Key Facts

Hedgehogs require access to a network of gardens spanning 10-30 hectares to meet their foraging needs
Solid fencing and walls prevent hedgehog movement between gardens, fragmenting populations
A 13cm x 13cm hole at the base of a fence allows hedgehog access while excluding most pets
Hedgehog Highway holes are certified by People's Trust for Endangered Species
Urban gardens collectively represent significant foraging habitat if connected
Hedgehog numbers in connected garden networks are significantly higher than in isolated gardens
Registration schemes allow neighbours to coordinate highway hole placement across multiple gardens

Welfare Considerations

Garden boundary fragmentation is a silent welfare problem for hedgehogs that is easily and cheaply solved. A hedgehog trapped in a single small garden cannot meet its foraging needs, maintain body condition, or find mates. The energetic cost of ranging through fragmented habitat is also significant - hedgehogs spend energy searching for boundary gaps that their predecessors never needed to find. Every garden fence that gets a highway hole is a direct welfare intervention: it restores connectivity that allows individual hedgehogs to meet their biological needs without the chronic stress of inadequate foraging range.

What You Can Do

Cut or create a 13cm x 13cm hole at the base of your garden fence
Register your highway hole with Hedgehog Street to contribute to connectivity mapping
Talk to neighbours about coordinating highway holes across multiple gardens
Avoid solid boundary fencing where post-and-rail or hedging provides connectivity
Leave areas of rough vegetation at garden edges to provide hedgehog resting and foraging habitat