This is in \u201csharp contrast\u201d to urban areas where populations appear to be stabilising and may be recovering, having declined previously.<\/p>\n
\u201cHedgehogs as we know them today have lived here for at least half a million years, but they\u2019re now facing myriad pressures which are causing populations to plummet, particularly in the rural landscape,\u201d says Fay Vass, chief executive of the BHPS. \u201cThe reasons for their decline are complex and aren\u2019t yet fully understood, but\u00a0two of the main pressures hedgehogs face in both rural and urban areas is lack of suitable habitat and habitat fragmentation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGreater awareness, and individual and community actions, such as making gardens more hedgehog friendly, may be starting to help urban hedgehogs. However, urgent action is needed to understand why rural areas are no longer suitable for hedgehogs, and how conservationists, farmers and land managers can work together to prevent hedgehogs from becoming extinct in the countryside.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/02\/Native-hog.-Credit-Cetra-Coverdale-for-Hedgehog-Street-9973f0d.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The data presented in this report was collected between 1981 and 2020 from five ongoing surveys: the PTES\u2019 Living with Mammals<\/a> and Mammals on Roads surveys, the British Trust for Ornithology\u2019s (BTO) Garden BirdWatch, the BTO, JNCC & RSPB\u2019s Breeding Bird Survey and the Game and Conservation Trust\u2019s National Gamebag Census.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u201cLoss of landscape features such as hedgerows is partly responsible for the decline, but not fully, as recent efforts have been made to restore and improve them,\u201d explains David Wembridge, mammal surveys co-ordinator at PTES. \u201cWe know from research, funded by PTES, BHPS and others over the last decade, that hedgehogs prefer villages to open farmland, and follow field margins and hedgerows. Understanding how hedgehogs use and move through the landscape is a big step forward, but more work is needed.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe now need to look at the wider management of farmland and field margins, how the invertebrate species that hedgehogs eat are faring, the impact of climate change, and how connected the wider landscape is. Once we know the full facts, we can start to help rural hedgehogs to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n The report says that more research is needed to confirm the data and to get a more accurate measure of how hedgehogs are faring. Both charities are planning to help farmers to make further positive changes to help hedgehogs.<\/p> Despite road mortality being highest around urban areas, it\u2019s thought that some gardens and green spaces are able to provide a refuge for hedgehogs from the pressures in surrounding rural landscapes. However, this is only if these green spaces are connected.<\/p>\n \u201cHedgehogs can travel around one mile every night through gardens and parks in search of food and mates,\u201d says Grace Johnson, hedgehog officer at Hedgehog Street (a joint campaign by BHPS and PTES). \u201cIt\u2019s clear from our report that gardens can be havens for hedgehogs, but only if they are connected via gaps in or under garden boundaries to let hedgehogs in and out. A \u2018Hedgehog Highway\u2019 (a 13cm or CD case sized square gap) will enable hedgehogs to roam between neighbouring gardens and green spaces, which is vital to their survival.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re really encouraged that urban populations appear to have stablised, but we can\u2019t be complacent as numbers are still low. We hope everyone who has been helping hedgehogs in our towns and villages, including our amazing 100,000+ volunteer Hedgehog Champions, will continue their brilliant efforts over the coming years, and hopefully one day hedgehog sightings will be commonplace again.\u201d<\/p>\n Main image: A hedgehog in leaves. \u00a9 BHPS<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Megan Shersby Published: Tuesday, 22 February 2022 at 12:00 am Published by the wildlife charities, the People\u2019s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), the State of Britain\u2019s Hedgehogs 2022 report shows that hedgehog numbers have plummeted by between 30% and 75% across the rural landscape, with the worst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":256,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-scaled.jpg",2560,1706,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-1024x682.jpg",800,533,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2022\/02\/populations-of-rural-hedgehogs-declining-by-up-to-75-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Megan Shersby Published: Tuesday, 22 February 2022 at 12:00 am Published by the wildlife charities, the People\u2019s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), the State of Britain\u2019s Hedgehogs 2022 report shows that hedgehog numbers have plummeted by between 30% and 75% across the rural landscape, with the worst…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}You may also like:\u00a0<\/h4>\n
Why are hedgehogs declining in rural areas?<\/h2>\n
Why are hedgehogs stable in urban areas?<\/h2>\n
![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/23\/2022\/02\/Hedgehog-house-example.-Credit.-Angela-Hodge-3dd30ea.jpg?quality=90&resize=551%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"")
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