European hedgehogs have declined by an estimated 50% since the millennium in the UK, requiring landscape-scale conservation action to reverse alarming population collapse.
Hedgehogs that cannot find adequate foraging habitat face starvation, particularly during drought years when soil invertebrates become inaccessible. Hedgehogs injured by mowers, strimmers, and garden tools suffer traumatic injuries that are often fatal without veterinary intervention. Individuals attempting to hibernate without adequate fat reserves die during winter torpor. The population decline has welfare implications for individual animals facing increasingly fragmented and food-poor environments even as it represents a conservation crisis.