For the 2025 Hedgehog Awareness Week, the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) is encouraging the public to turn the edges of gardens and open spaces into ‘wildlife havens’, and is asking organisations such as schools and councils to do the same.
Running from the 4th – 10th of May, the annual campaign aims to raise awareness about the decline of hedgehog populations and encourage people to help them.
Hedgehogs in Britain have undergone a long historic decline. As highlighted in the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs 2022 report, British hedgehogs have declined by between 30-75% in rural areas since 2000. Urban hedgehog populations appear to be stabilising and showing signs of recovery, but in stark contrast, rural populations remain low. In the last two decades, numbers have continued to decline by between a third and three-quarters nationally.
Detailed on their website, the BHPS has suggested seven wildlife-friendly actions to help hedgehogs, including letting the edges of gardens grow wild, adding hedgehog highways, making ponds wildlife-safe, checking edges and hedges for litter, provision of clean shallow water sources, halting use of poisons/pesticides, and ensuring netting is raised 30 centimetres off the ground.
Fay Vass, chief executive for BHPS, said: “Hedgehogs are a species on the edge of real trouble – but there are many small actions we can all do during Hedgehog Week and beyond to help create and link fantastic habitat for hedgehogs; just a little effort from each of us could make life a lot easier for them and help bring them back from the brink. If you don’t have a garden, you can still help by contacting public space managers, neighbours, family and friends to ensure they are all doing their bit, sharing our leaflets and posters, or donating to our Hedgehog Awareness Week.”
The BHPS is also urging people to become a ‘hedgehog champion’ for their area with Hedgehog Street, a project run by BHPS and People’s Trust for Endangered Species.
