Hedgehog rescuers in north-west England are facing a crisis due to an overwhelming number of admissions, with many now forced to turn animals away.
Hedgehogs, officially classified as vulnerable to extinction in the UK, were added to Britain’s red list of endangered mammals in 2020.
As their numbers continue to dwindle, volunteer rescuers are urgently calling on the government for financial support to expand their facilities and take in more animals.
Hedgehog Rescue Blackpool, founded in 2015, has seen a dramatic rise in admissions, from 121 in 2017 to 943 in 2023.
The main rescue centre, located in South Shore, Blackpool, relies heavily on a network of foster carers across the Fylde Coast to host the animals 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, one such fosterer in Lancashire, is currently looking after 10 hedgehogs, including five baby hoglets.
Four of these young hedgehogs were found alongside an adult who had been attacked by a dog, while the fifth, named Hazelnut, was brought in after contractors disturbed a nest in Longridge, leaving four two-week-old hoglets abandoned.
“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 Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester, and North Merseyside reports that hedgehog populations have plummeted from five million to just one million over the last 50 years.
“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.”
Claire points out that many of the injuries and deaths among hedgehogs are a direct result of human encroachment on their habitats.
“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.”
To cope with the rising demand, the rescue centre has submitted plans to build a new hedgehog rehabilitation facility on Claire’s property, which could help alleviate the burden on other rescuers.
However, many regional centres are still struggling. For example, Ness Hedgehog Rescue on the Wirral had to temporarily close in July due to a lack of space, and Lowton Hedgehog Rescue in Wigan is constantly full, with any available space quickly taken up by new patients.
The Wildlife Trust has called on the government to create more wild areas to replace hedgehog habitats 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 is launching its “Help a Hog” campaign, encouraging the public to share hedgehog sightings on its website to track population numbers.
“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, which could provide critical support to species like hedgehogs.
“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.”
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