Hedgehog Friendly Campus UoB

Hedgehog Awareness Week is a campaign organised by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and this year takes place between 5th-11th May. It aims to highlight the problems hedgehogs face and how you can help them. So we've collated our top 10 tips to help hedgehogs in your garden and community. Make sure there are CD case sized gaps in boundary fences and walls to allow easy passage. Move piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it. Check areas carefully before mowing or strimming. Ensure netting is kept at a safe height. Check compost heaps before digging the fork in. Stop or reduce the amount of pesticides and poisons used. Cover drains or deep holes. Ensure there is an easy route out of ponds & pools. Pick up any litter and dispose of safely Provide safe nesting site by providing a hog house- a log pile in a quiet sheltered spot is perfect! And one for good luck! If you ever see a hedgehog out in the day, it is very sick and you need to act quickly! Pl

The Hedgehog Friendly Campus project is now at the University of Birmingham! It's funded by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and open to all university staff members and students who want our campus to be a place where hedgehogs can thrive! The number of hedgehogs in the countryside has plummeted by around 50% and in urban gardens by 30% since the year 2000. There are perhaps just a million left, representing a 97% fall from the 30 million estimated to have roamed in the 1950s. This recent decline has been attributed to loss of hedgerows, greater usage of pesticides, litter, impermeable garden fencing and walls, and busy roads causing mortalities. So what does a ‘Hedgehog Friendly Campus’ look like and what can we do to help hedgehogs on campus? Staff and students join together to ensure: campus is litter free  plenty of joined up habitats for hedgehogs to roam  opportunity for hedgehogs to eat and drink  hedgehog houses are available to keep them safe and dry