Helping hedgehogs
When I started studying hedgehogs back in 1985, there was no thought that these peculiar, fascinating and adorable creatures might be under serious threat. The main concerns for hedgehogs revolved around the numbers being killed on roads – something that became an oft-repeated joke and, rather ironically, led them to being used by the Department for Transport, in cartoon form, as a road-safety educational tool for children.
What a difference a few decades make. By 2020, the hedgehog had joined the sorry list of species considered as Vulnerable to Extinction (in the next 20 years) on the Red List for British Mammals.
Cracks start to show
The first shot across the bow came in 2006, when the hedgehog was listed as a species of principle importance under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act. I remember thinking – naively – how great this was, because now the state conservation machinery would surely kick into gear and make things better.
But that machinery has long been undermined. And, after a while, it started to become clear that if anyone was going to do anything, it would have to be the conservationists and ecologists who were
