Hedgehogs in Ireland face significant road mortality, particularly along rural roads bordered by hedgerows that serve as movement corridors. Ireland retains good hedgehog populations relative to Britain but roads remain a key welfare threat.
Road strikes cause traumatic injuries including skull fractures, internal bleeding, and limb loss. Hedgehogs killed by vehicles suffer acute trauma. Injured survivors face slow death from internal injuries if not found. The hedgehog's defensive response of curling into a ball on roads is a fatal maladaptation to the threat of fast-moving vehicles that it did not evolve to encounter.