Road vehicle collisions kill an estimated 100,000-335,000 hedgehogs annually in the UK. Simple interventions across the road network could substantially reduce this preventable welfare harm.
Hedgehogs killed on roads die from crush injuries — typically rapidly but sometimes more slowly when struck by the vehicle edge. The cumulative toll across the UK road network is substantial enough to be considered a driver of population decline. Most individual road deaths are preventable — by driving slowly at night in hedgehog habitat, and by road infrastructure that incorporates hedgehog crossing points and speed reduction in known hedgehog areas.