Region's volunteer hedgehog rescuers 'in crisis'

Hazelnut was brought in after her nest was disturbed

Hedgehog rescuers in north-west England have said they are in crisis due to the number of admissions they are receiving, with many having to turn animals away.

Hedgehogs are officially classed as vulnerable to extinction in the UK and were added to the red list of Britain's under-threat mammals in 2020.

Volunteer rescuers are calling on the government for support and funding so they can expand and take in more hedgehogs.

Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool, which was established in 2015, said its admissions have increased from 121 in 2017 to 943 in 2023.

Four young hogs were brought in with an adult hedgehog that was bitten by a dog

The main rescue centre is based in South Shore, Blackpool, but relies on an army of fosterers across the Fylde Coast who host the hogs in their homes.

"It's in crisis the amount of hedgehogs that are being found," fosterer Claire Adamson said.

"A lot are having to temporarily close because they're too full."

Claire is currently looking after 10 hedgehogs, including five baby hoglets, at her home in Lancashire.

Four of the young hogs were found along with an adult who had been bitten by a dog.

"They were so malnourished and small for their age, they needed to be hand fed every four hours for a week," she said.

"It's a full time job looking after them, a lot of people who run or volunteer at rescues have jobs and families so that limits how many they can take in."

The fifth hoglet, Hazelnut, was brought in after contractors disturbed a nest while clearing an area of shrub in Longridge.

The adult hedgehog ran off and left four two-week old babies on their own.

'Humans encroaching'

In the last 50 years, the hedgehog population has dropped from five million to one million, according to the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.

Claire said most injuries and deaths were caused by humans encroaching on their habitat.

"New houses and fences go up, there's nowhere for hedgehogs to get through and roam, so their habitat is lost and so their food source," Claire said.

"They have to go out of the area to find new habitats, a road might get in the way and they get injured or killed."

Flo was brought to Claire with a very high parasite load

The rescue centre has submitted plans for a new hedgehog rehabilitation facility to be built on Claire's property, she said she hoped it would ease the burden on other rescuers.

However, the charity said during the summer months a number of other regional hedgehog rescue centres had to decline further admissions due to lack of capacity.

On the Wirral, Ness Hedgehog Rescue was forced to close temporarily in July after it ran out of space.

Irene Thomsom, who runs Lowton Hedgehog Rescue in Wigan, said her rescue space was constantly full and any available space was taken by a new patient within hours.

She said human's encroaching on hedgehog's territory were forcing them to make desperate and dangerous food choices.

"This year has seen a high volume of juvenile hedgehogs coming in with very heavy burdens of internal parasites," she said.

"They are eating creatures which host parasites like slugs and earthworms instead of their natural food source which is insects, bugs and grubs."

Alan Wright said the public could do their bit by "leaving a corner of their garden scruffy" and creating hedgehog highways

The Wildlife Trust has called on the government to create more wild areas to help replace the hedgehog habitats that have been destroyed by development.

"We need 30% of the UK set aside for wildlife by 2030," Alan Wright, head of Campaigns and Communications, said.

He said the public could do their bit by "leaving a corner of their garden scruffy".

"A pile of dead vegetation is a perfect habitat for a hedgehog to snuffle under and avoid the weather, maybe hibernate over winter."

In October the trust will launch its "help a hog" campaign, which encourages people to share hedgehog sightings on the trust's website.

"The campaign aims to bring people back into that mindset that we are sharing our world with wildlife and making a home for them," he said.

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the government is working on a new statutory plan to "protect and restore the natural environment".

“Britain’s nature is in crisis, with many of our animal species, including hedgehogs threatened with extinction,"the spokesperson said.

“That is why this government has wasted no time in announcing a rapid review to deliver on our legally binding environment targets - including reversing the decline in species.”