One of the most useful things that you can do to help hedgehogs is to put an access hole in your garden fences and encourage your neighbours to do the same. Private gardens in Britain cover an area bigger than all of the country’s nature reserves combined, so they have huge potential as hedgehog habitats if they are made accessible and wildlife friendly. This is the idea behind the creation of ‘Hedgehog Highways’.
One street in Woking that has taken this message to heart is Greenmeads in Westfield. Janey, a resident of the street, first discovered that hedgehogs were visiting her garden about 18 months ago when she borrowed one of WEAct’s wildlife cameras (you can sign up to borrow a camera yourself here). Janey raised the topic of “her” hedgehogs at a neighbourhood meeting and followed up with some videos of their nightly antics in the street WhatsApp group. This was positively received, and it encouraged her neighbours to also make hedgehog holes in their fences. Now around half of the 80 houses have a hedgehog hole (or 2) helping to keep these friendly creatures well away from traffic. Many residents report hedgehog visits, with one family even using their ring doorbell to detect nocturnal hedgehog activity (much to their children’s delight).
Janey said ‘I borrowed a camera from WEAct as I was curious to see who / what had dug a tunnel under my garden gate. I enjoyed watching the hogs so much that my children surprised me with a wildlife camera for my birthday. Hedgehogs are such an amusing bunch and it gives me an upbeat item to pop on the neighbourhood group chat now and again. This year we’ve 4 distinct adults visiting our garden so I’m hopeful we’ll be getting hoglets sometime soon’.
Hedgehog holes do not need to be large, a 13cm by 13cm square is sufficient for any hedgehog to pass through, too small for nearly all pets. One common concern that may discourage people from making a hole is that it would allow rats into the garden, however rats are excellent climbers and can easily scale fences, so not having a hole only really blocks hedgehogs! Hedgehog Street, a project by the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, has some excellent resources available on their website to support the creation of hedgehog holes and highways.
WEAct has some Hedgehog highway signs available to give away, all you need to do is send a photo of your hedgehog hole (bonus points for before and after!) to hello@wokingenvironmentaction.com, confirming that you’ve registered your hole on the PTES website. Remember to also report any hedgehog sightings!
