Until now. Two wildlife NGOs, the\u00a0People\u2019s Trust for Endangered Species<\/a>\u00a0(PTES) and the\u00a0British Hedgehog Preservation Society<\/a>\u00a0(BHPS) have been working together for many years on hedgehog<\/a> conservation, and now they\u2019ve produced a national conservation strategy for these much-loved mammals.<\/p> Since 2000, more than half of hedgehogs have disappeared from rural areas and about a third from towns and cities, though urban populations appear to be recovering in some places. The total population in England, Scotland and Wales is put at just under 900,000 individuals, but PTES says there is a lot of uncertainty around this figure.<\/p> It\u2019s suspected that declines in abundance and diversity of beetles<\/a> and earthworms<\/a> \u2013 their favoured food items \u2013\u00a0in agricultural and other fields is a key factor. Loss and deterioration in the quality of the mix of habitats they like \u2013\u00a0from grasslands where they feed to scrub areas where they shelter, nest and hibernate<\/a> \u2013\u00a0is another.\u00a0<\/p> \u201cI would love to travel back 15-20,000 years in time and see where hedgehog density was greatest, but I\u2019m sure it would have been a mosaic habitat,\u201d says Nida Al-Fulaij, chief executive of PTES.<\/p> PTES wants to work with landowners who are rewilding their land, such as the well-known Knepp estate<\/a> in West Sussex, to see whether the restoration of scrubby, mosaic habitats is leading to benefits for hedgehogs.<\/p> Working with landowners \u2013\u00a0and farmers especially \u2013\u00a0will be a vital component of the new strategy. Assessing whether measures put in place under the new farm subsidy Environmental Land Management scheme (ELMS) help hedgehogs is critical, as is taking advantage of the new spatial wildlife plans known as Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRSs).<\/p> Supporting farmers so they can implement the right strategies (and also benefit themselves) will almost certainly be the most important thing to do, says Al-Fulaij.<\/p> Patrick Barker farms nearly 550 hectares of arable land in Suffolk and has been steadily implementing wildlife-friendly measures over the past two decades. But while other wildlife, such as farmland birds and pollinating insects, has recovered, hedgehogs are \u201cjust about holding on\u201d rather than thriving.<\/p> \u201cI\u2019ve come to the conclusion that the best management for hedgehogs is a whole-farm approach,\u201d he says. \u201cRather than trying to be specific, you need a landscape that can benefit everything.\u201d<\/p> The hard work implementing the strategy begins now, says Al-Fulaij, and the next 10 years will be vital in determining whether the fortunes of Mrs Tiggy Winkle can be reversed. \u201cHopefully, in 10 years time, we will see large groups of stakeholders really committed to practical actions across the country and real habitat improvements in large areas,\u201d Al-Fulaij adds.\u00a0<\/p> More wildlife stories from around Britain<\/strong><\/p> The new strategy outlines the major threats to hedgehogs that conservation NGOs, local councils and the Government must tackle collectively over the next decade to stop their decline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":40859,"template":"","categories":[1,27],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction.jpg",2131,1407,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-300x198.jpg",300,198,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-768x507.jpg",768,507,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-1024x676.jpg",800,528,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-1536x1014.jpg",1536,1014,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/45\/2024\/10\/hedgehogs-sos-vital-new-plan-could-save-britains-favourite-animal-from-extinction-2048x1352.jpg",2048,1352,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The new strategy outlines the major threats to hedgehogs that conservation NGOs, local councils and the Government must tackle collectively over the next decade to stop their decline.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/40858"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbccountryfile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Hedgehog](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2024\/10\/Hedgehog-in-leaves-scaled.jpg\")
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