Hedgehogs - Decline and Fall

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The Don of Croy

Original Poster:

5,976 posts

158 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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On ITN late night news a day or two ago - apparently hedgehog numbers have decreased from 36 million in the 1950's (who did the census?) to 1.5 million in 1995, now thought to be below 1 million nationwide.

That's a 97% reduction by my reckoning.

From my own anecdotal evidence I've not seen one - dead or alive - for at least ten years. That includes a daily commute over Ashdown Forest in Sussex, the largest area in the SE never put under the plow (so not much habitat destruction from modern farming methods).

Plenty of deer, fox, badger, and now buzzards...have also seen voles, otter, etc etc but no hedgepigs.

Apparently they are not on an endangered list either - which seems odd. Just how big a reduction do they need?

Anyways, we would like some to come and feast on the slugs and snails currently devouring the borders. Can we adopt?

bexVN

14,682 posts

210 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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I find it hard to believe there were 36 million back in the 50, there were only 50 million people and hedgehogs aren't prolific breeders like rats?! But if that's what the experts say...

Having said all that it is very true that numbers are declining. The way we have our gardens these days doesn't help, hedgehogs have wide territories, with garden access being important in that (we have a hole in our fence deliberately for the hedgehogs and we do get them occasionally).

Roads, poisoning, etc all contribute.

Ask a local wildlife centre, they may be able to help re a hedgehog or two.

Edited by bexVN on Thursday 21st May 10:48

megamaniac

1,057 posts

215 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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I hadn't seen one for years until about a week ago when I saw one on our lane.

Mr Gearchange

5,892 posts

205 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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I had one knock on my door last night. Seriously.

ajprice

27,321 posts

195 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Hedgehogs were responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs. True Fact.

randlemarcus

13,507 posts

230 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Gypsies. Roll em up in clay and bake them, they do.

Gargamel

14,958 posts

260 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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I blame the badgers

Used to have them in my back garden, great for keeping the slugs down.

But haven't seen them about in a few years now.

Joey Ramone

2,150 posts

124 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Got one in our garden. Comes out just after night has fallen, regular as clockwork. I leave dry catfood out for him. Or her.

Had one in our last place as well. Bought it a little house that it could hibernate in over the winter. Cool little animals actually. They do sound like little pigs as the root around in the leaves.

Timmy40

12,915 posts

197 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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I wonder if its connected to the use of slug pellets widely in agriculture, or just habitat loss?

Mr GrimNasty

8,172 posts

169 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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The main problem is the lack of control of badgers and foxes thanks to do-gooders who don't understand why vermin needs to be controlled. Both of these predators have no problem opening and eating a rolled up hog.

In urban areas the next biggest issue is the increase in traffic, rolling up into a ball at the sight of a car doesn't help - this has been made worse by householders forcing hedgehogs onto roads by replacing open fencing and hedges with impenetrable slabs. Hedgehogs like to roam large distances.

Huntsman

8,028 posts

249 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Judging by the number of flattened ones I see on the roads I should think the increase in traffic is the cause.

Willy Nilly

12,511 posts

166 months

Thursday 21st May 2015
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Agriculture takes up a lot of their natural habitat, but most farms have various uncropped strips around the edges of fields that should give them something nice to eat. But they need places to hide and like piles of dead vegetation.

A lot of gardens now are rather sterile, people trim their lawns to within an inch of their lives, don't leave any "weeds" and put fences around them. My garden gets a bit over grown but I get wildlife in there. I have a compost heap and all sorts of stuff loves that. There are hedgehogs in there and bumble bees, slow worms and loads of insects.

SPR2

3,182 posts

195 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Has been here all week. Certainly a big one.

Tonsko

6,299 posts

214 months

Friday 29th May 2015
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Had a family knocking about last year, not seen them of late though.

Do have swallows and a wren nesting in the garage though!

Edited by Tonsko on Friday 29th May 23:07

SPR2

3,182 posts

195 months

Thursday 11th June 2015
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First sighting of 2 last night. Messy little creatures though ;(

The Don of Croy

Original Poster:

5,976 posts

158 months

Thursday 11th June 2015
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I am jealous of all those with 'hog' friends.

We don't even see squished ones by the road side any more. Badgers - probably one carcass a month in this area.

Our gardens have free-flowing access for cats, badgers, small dogs, etc etc and we border fields (albeit across a busy road). But hedgepigs there are none.

Even Springwatch gave them a mention - and quoted the same ratio of decline - but there is no word of 'protection' (not that I advocate it) even though it is, apparently, the UK's favourite wild animal! (Is that as a menu item?)

I'd just like to know what's killed them/made them disappear. Slug pellets?


Hooli

32,278 posts

199 months

Thursday 11th June 2015
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ajprice said:
Hedgehogs were responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs. True Fact.
hehe

I miss seeing hedgehogs, it's about the only wildlife we don't get in our garden.

Nightmare

5,182 posts

283 months

Friday 12th June 2015
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The Don of Croy said:
I'd just like to know what's killed them/made them disappear. Slug pellets?
Large combination of things - most mentioned above....a few sort of not mentioned.....

1. There were actually FAR too many of them, by area, for a competitive omnivore since victorianish times. They were bred as pest control and numbers exploded upwards - they do amazingly well in most conditions
2. Improvements in conditions for competition - badgers in some areas but urban foxes to a large degree - very little to do with predation, much more to do with competing for same stuff (but also predation of babies particularly - increase in size of most corvidae since the 50s doesn't help there either)
3. Reduction in wildlife corridors/closed gardens/more roads

but probably the biggest thing is that there has been a general decline in gardening as an interest and a great improvement in the quality of garden fencing - so you see far less in peoples gardens which is where they have traditionally been surveyed...... A couple of guys I know who have also been hedgehog surveying for 35 odd years are fairly sure that whilst the numbers have undoubtedly declined badly, it appears far worse in urban areas than if you take a broader sample - but the way wildlife surveys work tends to mean that any geographical or behavioural change can be counted as a massive population drop.

If you watched Springwatch you'd have seen that after making the scrape inaccessible to the badgers they didn't keep trying to get through the fence each night; and in fact moved their foraging to a totally different area - but if that badger had been a survey count then it would have recorded has a zero, even though it was still fit and healthy elsewhere.

The only plus of this means at least they've stopped killing all the ones on the scottish isles and are now just releasing them back to the UK which is, i guess, positive for those specific hogs smile

The Don of Croy

Original Poster:

5,976 posts

158 months

Friday 12th June 2015
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Nightmare said:
Many things
Thank you for the reply. Never knew they'd been bred for pest control, maybe they should start again...(we have far too many slugs/wifey propagates too much slug & snail food).