Hedgehogs face multiple hazards in modern gardens including slug pellets, pesticides, and netting that cause painful deaths and contribute to population collapse.
Hedgehog deaths from garden hazards involve acute suffering. Metaldehyde poisoning causes seizures, hypersalivation, and death over hours. Netting entanglement causes slow death from exhaustion and dehydration, sometimes lasting days. Strimmer injuries, which kill thousands annually, cause traumatic wounds. These are preventable deaths requiring only small behavioral changes from gardeners. Their loss diminishes ecosystems as hedgehogs play important roles in invertebrate population regulation.