Footprints, but no hedgehogs :(

When was the last time you saw a hedgehog? We spotted one in our compost heap a few years ago, but haven’t seen one since. Hedgehogs populations have reduced in numbers in recent years and there is a monitoring project going on in my area to try and work out how hedgehogs are doing locally. My family took part in the monitoring experiment last week and for 5 evenings we put out food, ink and paper in a hedgehog monitoring tunnel, hoping for some hog prints in the morning (read more here). Sadly we didn’t get any hedgehog prints. Every morning, the prints looked like the picture above. The culprits were mice and slugs.

It was a bit disappointing, but we are going to join in with the monitoring experiment in the spring and maybe try putting the tunnel in a different place to see if we have any luck.

Sustainable gift wrap course

To cheer ourselves up we did a bit of baking and made some hedgehog bread rolls!

The kids ones turned out better than mine as they made deeper cuts in the dough than I did. Also most of the eyes fell out as they needed to be pushed in deeper and the cocoa nibs didn’t cook very well! I’ll know for next time to use raisins and make deep cuts!

Having a slightly hedgehog themed half term week we also drew some hedgehogs and named them! This is Hex the hedgehog drawn by my son.

If you want to monitor the hedgehogs in your local area, then why not get a tunnel (or make one), they cost around £15 on this website here (not an affiliate link in case you are wondering) and if you sign up to the Hedgehog Street website here you could become a champion for your road and start a monitoring project in your area! I think I have convinced my mum to start up a hedgehog street in her road in the spring and I’m very tempted to get one for the kids school to use! It is a low cost, bit of fun that gets neighbours together and hopefully will help to turn things around for hedgehogs as more people become aware of what they can do to help them (for more tips on how you can help them see here).

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