Happy Hedgehog Awareness week! It is always astonishing to me just how much loss of biodiversity has happened not decades ago when we could plead a certain amount of ignorance of ecosystems and the impact of human activity on our shared environment, but this very 21st Century. In the last two decades, when corporations and governments clothes themselves in assumed Green clothing, eager to reassure us that our consumption is in some way virtuous.
Anyway, here is a link to James Common’s post on Hedgehog Awareness Week…
This year, The British Hedgehog Preservation Society is once again running Hedgehog Awareness Week (HAW) between the 6th-12th May. Designed to raise awareness of the plight of Britain’s hedgehogs, the week aims to educate people with regards to how they themselves can help out our spiny friends.
Hedgehogs have declined by up to 50% since the beginning of the century due to a mix of factors including but not limited to:
- The widespread use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers which both remove vital food sources for hedgehogs and may, in some cases, result in secondary poisoning of the animals themselves.
- Flailing, a common method of managing hedgerows which renders them unsuitable for nesting.
- Poor positioning of fencing and walls – solid boundaries such as these make it harder for hedgehogs to move between foraging sites.
- Habitat loss, including the loss of scrubby areas, marginal land and hedgerows
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Séamus Sweeney 