Hedgehog Awareness Week

There always seems to be some kind of week going on. This week it’s pet week, compost awareness week and hedgehog awareness week. With our green thought already being about compost I thought it might be nice to mention some hedgehogs in this week’s blog.

First up, what can you do to help? Here are some useful ideas to help hedgehogs to feel at home in your garden:

• Ensure there is access into the garden (all that is needed is 5” square gap).
• Check areas before strimming or mowing.
• Move piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it.
• Ensure netting is kept at a safe height.
• Check compost heaps before digging the fork in.
• Stopor reduce the amount of pesticides and poisons used.
• Cover drains or deep holes.
• Ensuring there is an easy route out of ponds and pools.

So why not do something positive for hedgehogs this week? You can find a huge amount of information online at: http://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/index.php or http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/ There’s also some children’s activities there too.

The picture above is a hedgehog I spotted a few years ago, if you’ve got any hedgehog pictures we’d love to see them on our social media channels!

www.facebook.com/paperroundrecycling

www.twitter.com/paperround

www.linkedin.com/paperround

Finally, we’ve not had a quiz for a while so here we go, scroll down for the answers, but no cheating!

1. What is a baby hedgehog called?
2. If you find a hedgehog that you are concerned about, what should you do?
3. How big of a gap should your fence have to allow hedgehogs to move around freely?
4. What should you give hedgehogs to drink?
5. What can you do to encourage hedgehogs to take up residence in your garden?

1. Hoglets
2. Pick it up using gardening gloves or a towel. Place it in a high sided box, lined with an old fleece or towel along with a hot water bottle. Don’t allow the hot water bottle to get cold and make sure they have an area that’s not on top of the water bottle. Offer them meaty foods and fresh water. Call the British Hedgehog Preservation Society on 01584 890 801 and they will help.
3. 5 inches – that’s about 13cm.
4. Only water, especially in dry weather.
5. Leave a wild area and avoid “tidying up” If you do have stacks of leaves or branches to get rid of – move them before you burn them because they can make great hedgehog hotels.