Do you live in the BS16 postcode of Bristol, UK? You may have already read my recent blog on UWE Hedgehog Friendly Campus detailing what UWE Frenchay have been doing over the last 18 months to help our local hedgehog population, but now it’s time to get you involved too!
Of British wildlife, hedgehogs are perhaps one of the most charismatic. They were voted the UK’s favourite mammal in a 2016 Royal Society of Biology poll, and featured in Beatrix Potter’s famous children’s books. With cute snuffling noses, footprints that look like children’s handprints, a protective coat of spines and ability to roll into a ball it’s almost hard to believe that these animals are in real trouble in the UK!
Hedgehogs are threatened mostly by US! Urbanisation, the increase in buiding of homes, roads and industry etc. means that their habitat is disappearing. Solid walls and fences stops hedgehogs from moving around. Hedgehogs can travel up to 2km a night, visiting many gardens and helping to keep garden pests under control. Needing to cross busy roads put them at risk of death, in 2019 Project Splatter recieved a staggering 890 (approx.) reports of hedgehogs killed on roads. Increasing use of pesticides at home and in agriculture not only kills their food, but endangers their own health. Their natural habitat is disappearing, but much like the fox, they have adapted very well to life in urban environments; however, this puts them at greater risk from the above, and we are reported to have lost over a third of the UK hedgehog population in the last 20 years alone.
Hedgehogs in BS16
Do we have hedgehogs in BS16? YES! Bristol Regional Environmental Records Centre shows that there are 43 records within a 2km radius of UWE Frenchay, and those are just the sightings that people have recorded! Hedgehog Street’s Big Hedgehog Map also shows several records in the area, but this map also shows locations where people have put a hedgehog tunnel in their garden fence… and there are very few of these recorded in the BS16 area! Meanwhile, the Mammal Society have created a map of the UK to show the risk of death that hedgehogs face on our roads, and many of the roads in BS16 are marked as ‘high-risk’.
With this campaign I hope that I can help you to help hedgehogs. I’ll be sharing links to other campaigns, tips for how you can take part and ways to get the kids involved. There will be a guide on how to write to your local MP, and how to approach your landlord to ask if you can install a hedgehog highway in your garden fence.
It is also my hope that we can work towards getting official Hedgehog Crossing signs installed in key areas, such as Long Down Avenue and Stoke Lane near UWE, and turn the whole of BS16 into a huge Hedgehog Friendly area!
You can find the main page for this campaign here on Facebook, and if you share this campaign on social media, please include the hashtag #bs16hedgehogs!
Student Ecologist - Bristol 