Hedgehog Awareness Week

 

Spring is here and our gardens are coming into bloom.

 Spring is here and our gardens are coming into bloom.

As our daylight hours becomes longer and temperatures rising, the sudden urge to get out in the garden is calling out to many of us.

Just as a reminder for all gardening enthusiasts

Check before strimming Please be careful when using any cutting equipment in your garden. Strimmer's are particularly dangerous as these can wound or kill hedgehogs hiding or nesting in long vegetation. Unlike other animals, they will not run away if they hear the noise of machinery. Before undertaking the work, check in long patches of grass, along rough edges and under hedges. If you do discover a hedgehog, either postpone your work or carefully move it (using thick gloves!) to a safer place in the garden.

How to help Hedgehogs

 

Log Haven

 

Logs used as safe haven for hedgehogs 

 Logs can be seen scattered around the university campus intentionally.

 Hedgehogs live anywhere they can find shelter. Log piles provide a safe, secure site for breeding or hibernating, and with a plethora of insects in residence, there’s a year round food supply.

Compost heaps or leaf piles are another favorite, providing nesting sites, bedding material and an abundance of delicious creepy crawlies. You can also build or buy hedgehog homes – just make sure you get them outside well before hibernation season (November to March) so they start to smell like the garden.

Little path to Feeding Station

 

25/03/2022 Friday morning:

Whilst topping up hedgehog food in one of our feeding stations a pathway can easily be notified entering the feeding station.

This has raised some excitement, after discussing with other work colleagues decided to fit wildlife camera to capture evidence of who's causing this footpath.  

Food and water empties quickly, though evidence needed to sustain what animal is causing this.

We did receive regular visits last year at this feeding station by a hedgehog, so fingers crossed.

                                                   

Possible Hedgehog Nest

                                                 

                                                  

                                                  

Possible Hedgehog nest

08/03/2022

Possible hedgehog nest discovered on campus. The Picture at the bottom is of a surveillance tunnel used to discover footprints.

Unfortunately after three nights no hedgehog footprints discovered. However this just tells us that no hedgehog currently using this nest. Doesn't mean not used in the past.

Hedgehogs can have three nests at any one time, this site will be assessed again in the near future.


 

Success Stories

 

 Over the last few years, hedgehog's have been discovered around the University of York grounds injured or in I'll health.

After careful treatment from the experts, here we have six success stories. All these hedgehogs have either been released back onto University land or placed in a private garden for protection.

Please note all hedgehogs receiving treatment for injuries or illness has been carried out by trained professionals around the York area. The University itself does not offer any such treatment. 

Hedgehog Footprints

 

Hedgehog Footprints from last year 2021

Collected using surveillance tunnel

Great example of hedgehog prints

 

Hedgehog and cat prints

Slugs got the better of this paper

Hedgehog and mouse prints

 

The University of York has been recognised for its hedgehog friendly campus with a prestigious Gold award.

 

The University of York has been recognised for its hedgehog friendly campus with a prestigious Gold award.

The Gold Hedgehog Friendly award, from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS), is the culmination of three years’ work which has seen staff and students create hedgehog friendly habitat, install feeding stations and assist with surveying and rescuing injured animals. 

Awareness

Other initiatives carried out by the University to achieve the accolade included:

• Raising awareness of what steps people can take to help hedgehogs, including hosting a public hedgehog awareness day on campus

• setting up trail cams on campus as part of the survey process

• the creation of a hedgehog friendly staff and student group to set out specific ecological measures 

• Regular litter pick ups on campus

• Installation of hedgehog shelters around campus, which estates staff monitored and kept stocked with food

The University is one of 13 universities across the UK to achieve Gold status in 2022.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society estimate that hedgehog numbers have declined by nearly 50% since the turn of the century, with hedgehogs now being classified as vulnerable to extinction.

Conservation

The BHPS campaigns to raise awareness around hedgehog conservation and welfare issues and runs a specific hedgehog friendly campus scheme.

Gordon Eastham, Grounds and Ecology Manager at the University, said staff and students had worked hard to achieve the gold status, in particular colleagues Karen Stilgoe, Angie Hudson, Sean Richards and Chris Sockett.

He said: “I was fortunate enough to grow up in the countryside and as a youngster remember seeing hedgehogs quite regularly. 

“That was quite a long time ago of course, but imagine my surprise and dismay when one of the students in the Hedgehog Group recently said to me, they had never seen a live hedgehog. 

“In many ways, this speaks volumes as to why we are so engaged with the ethos of the campaign and why it is so important that we do everything we can to make the campus not just hedgehog friendly, but also as biodiverse as we possibly can by creating and protecting suitable habitat.”

Community

Professor Nia Bryant, who initiated the project on campus and is based at the Department of Biology said: “This has been a very rewarding project, working with different groups across the University has shown how we can work together to make a big difference to the plight of this much-loved species – I’ve had great feedback from the wider community about our work too.”

Jo Wilkinson, from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society said: “The university has shown huge dedication and passion for helping hedgehogs and other wildlife through the Hedgehog Friendly Campus programme, which is funded and accredited by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. 

“We want to take this moment to thank all of the volunteers at the University who have taken part over the last three years. With hedgehogs now vulnerable to extinction in Britain, your help is more important than ever.”