Barratt and David Wilson Homes are encouraging residents to help their prickly nocturnal neighbours with a series of top tips to help keep native hedgehogs safe this Bonfire Night.
Rural hedgehog populations have dropped drastically – by up to 75% in some parts of the country since 2000. Urban hedgehogs fare slightly better, but still need help.
Alarmingly, hedgehogs have been classified as Vulnerable to extinction on the Red List for Britain’s Mammals (2020). The reasons behind their decline include habitat loss, fragmentation and agricultural intensification.
The homebuilders have partnered with the RSPB since 2014 and are committed to supporting nature and wildlife at its developments in Milton Keynes.
As part of this pledge, the developers are creating wildlife friendly gardens at their developments, and include hedgehog homes and ‘Hedgehog Highways’ (13cm square gaps in or under garden fences or walls), as well as a range of other eco-friendly features for other native wildlife.
Hedgehog experts from Hedgehog Street offer various top tips for helping hedgehogs in any garden, whether this be making Hedgehog Highway 13x13cm gaps in fences to allow hedgehogs access between different gardens when searching for food, shelter and mates, creating leafy corners and log piles which could be the perfect nesting areas and places to forage for natural insect food, and offering shallow dishes of water.
Barratt and David Wilson Homes have issued a five-point plan based on advice from experts at Hedgehog Street to help keep hedgehogs safe this Bonfire Night.
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Stop – do you need to have a bonfire? Can you attend a community event, or mark the occasion in a more wildlife-friendly way? The fewer bonfires there are, the fewer wildlife casualties there will be.
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If you decide to have a bonfire, build it at the last minute to stop any hedgehogs moving in. Building your bonfire on the day of lighting can help reduce the risk to hedgehogs and other wildlife.
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Move the entire bonfire pile to clear ground just before lighting, to give our prickly friends a chance to escape.
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Check the bonfire again thoroughly just before lighting. Even if you have taken into account the other steps, there is no harm in triple checking! You might even find other animals including amphibians and reptiles using the bonfire for shelter.
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Light your bonfire from one side, to give any wildlife that you may have missed, one final chance of escape.
“It’s extremely important to us when building new communities that we’re also creating a space for wildlife to thrive,” said Ben Kalus, managing director at Barratt and David Wilson Homes, “We hope these vital tips can help to keep local hedgehog populations stable.”
