Making Earley Friendly for Hedgehogs

Earley is delighted to have Herbie’s Hedgehog Rescue run by capable and enthusiastic Shweta Saikumar in our area, and there is more we can all do to help these precious mammals thrive in our area.

Earley Environmental Group and their Junior division are very excited to be continuing to develop the Reserve in ways that make it friendlier for hedgehogs. This means adding more areas of dead hedging to protect them, including more hedgehog houses in the Reserve and continuing to encourage the biodiversity of the insect life to ensure that the hedgehogs have plenty of food.

Hedgehogs can travel around a mile every night as they forage for food, and it is safer for them to avoid roads where possible, as this reduces their chances of being run over. A 13cm x 13cm entrance hole and exit hole in your boundary is all that is needed to enable these beautiful creatures to travel into and through your garden if they cannot get in under your side gate.

If you would like to be a “Hedgehog Champion Street” and join up with all of the gardens around you, please let us know when you have done so and we can add you to our local map of hedgehog highways. If you already have hedgehogs visiting, this is a really important way that you can help ensure they have a safe nightly route to wander. For more information on linking your garden, have a look at Hedgehog Street.

Charlotte Allchin

This article appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of the MERA Magazine.