Decline of the Gardener’s Friend
Hedgehog Decline An Indicator Of Environmental Health
They may look to be prickly customers on the outside but these little slug guzzlers are adorable close up. And they play an important role in our rural and urban ecosystems.
In the UK, declining hedgehog numbers are a major concern for ecologists and conservationists because these spiny critters are seen as an indicator species; a kind of barometer for the health of the environment. Because they feed on invertebrates in the soil, a slump in their numbers suggests other critters important to our ecosystems are struggling too.
But we as gardeners can do our bit to help the hedgehog survive, so they can continue to help us rid our gardens of unwanted slugs and caterpillars.
According to Fay Vass, chief executive for the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), there were thought to be around 30 million hedgehogs in the UK in the 1950s, that number is now thought to be less than one million.
For one of our most-loved animals, which constantly tops the charts in polls of our favourite wildlife, to have vanished in such large numbers is deeply worrying.
And the rate of hedgehog decline causes wider concerns about the state of the UK’s ecosystem. They are seen as an indicator species for the health of the natural world because they feed on soil invertebrates, so a big decline in hedgehogs implies the quality of the environment has significantly decreased.
The reasons underlying hedgehogs’ precipitous decline are varied and complex. In the wider countryside, the loss of hedgerows as nesting sites and movement corridors, the loss of permanent pastures for finding food, and the widespread use of pesticides, which are killing the invertebrates they like to eat, are all contributing factors.
For the hedgehogs that live in our towns and cities, it’s the increasing use of fencing that obstructs their movement between gardens, and our obsession with keeping our green spaces tidy that is taking its toll. And like their rural cousins, city hedgehogs are suffering from our use of pesticides at home, in part due to our dislike of slugs.
“Whilst it is certain that nature can live without humans, humans cannot live without nature. Ensuring hedgehog survival should not be viewed as a luxury but as an urgent necessity,” Ms Vass says.
How To Help the Hogs
What are some of the ways gardeners can help restore hedgehog numbers?
Ms Vass explains that hedgehogs struggle to find natural food and water when it is very dry. It’s a situation that is compounded by our fenced-in, sterile ‘wildlife unfriendly’ gardens.
“It is especially important to support them [during dry weather] with hedgehog food, meaty pet food, dried mealworms and a shallow bowl of water,” she says.
“Small individual actions can have a huge impact when there are many people involved.”
“A key thing is to realise that they are only using your garden as part of a much wider range in the local neighbourhood,” says Henry Johnson, hedgehog officer at the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES).
“If you consider that there is half a million hectares worth of garden in the UK, this is a huge potential resource for ‘hogs,” he says.
Maintaining access through garden fences by cutting out a CD-sized hole allows them to roam freely on their hedgehog highways. Beyond this, explains Mr Johnson, being hedgehog-friendly is mainly about encouraging invertebrates by planting nectar-rich plants, not using chemicals and creating features like ponds and compost heaps.
These simple measures to help hedgehogs thrive would also benefit the environment in general.
Mr Johnson stresses that making a garden hedgehog-friendly is very easy and cheap, and doesn’t have to look like a wilderness, or a big mess.
“A world without hedgehogs would be an uglier place,” says Ms Vass.
Source: www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150818-living-with-hedgehogs
