Hedgehog Awareness Week

Text reads:>>Hedgehog Awareness Week 2nd – 8th May, 2021>>Beatrix Potter sprinkled magic over hedgehogs, transforming them into an irresistible companion of the garden. >>As hedgehogs are nocturnal animals, they hunt for delicious creepy crawlies at night, which can often be found in hedgerows, undergrowth or in the soil. When hedgehogs are foraging for their dinner, they often make a loud snuffling noise as they search. Some people say this sounds similar to a pig’s grunt, which is why they are called ‘hedgehogs’.>>They are now something of a rare sight in British gardens and in fact are disappearing at the same rate as the tiger worldwide. UK hedgehog numbers have dropped from an estimated 30m in the 1950s to under a million today.>>Experts say there are many reasons for this.>>Firstly, their habitat has shrunk as more buildings and houses are built, so hedgehogs can't wander as freely across the landscape as they used to.> >In the wild, hedgehogs have quite a varied diet as they eat lots of creepy crawlies, called invertebrates, such as: worms, beetles, slugs, caterpillars, and millipedes. Which means their food is frequently killed off by farmers and gardeners. Pesticides and herbicides, in our gardens and on farmland, are deadly to hedgehogs and their food.>>Feeding hedgehogs in your garden>When winter approaches, food in the wild soon becomes sparse, meaning not all hedgehogs will have enough fat stored. For this reason, you should provide food for wild hedgehogs in your garden ahead of the change in weather at that time of year.>>