Animal sanctuaries have been receiving a greater number of hedgehogs being brought in to be looked after and this rise has been linked with the number of gardens receiving a green makeover it’s believed. It’s also believed that with more people spending a great deal more time in their gardens because of the recession, which started in 2008 and is continuing today, and the ‘improvements’ to the garden whilst being cosmetically pleasant and relaxing to the human race is actually detrimental to these shy spiny mammals.
Some of the activities causing the problems are the removal of garden lawns and replacing them with gravel or timber decking and it makes it harder for the hedgehogs to dig and find foods. The updating of garden sheds with brand new ones can also affect these creatures because where there was a garden shed with a sheltered area which had grown naturally over many years this is ripped out and the are sanitised from the hedgehogs point of view.
Dr Toni Brunell who runs a rescue centre in York said that the replacement of garden fences with new wooden, concrete or even plastic fencing and replacing that old garden shed can also disrupt hedgehogs by stopping them going from garden to garden making it even harder for them to find scare food.
She said that the problem is these garden makeovers which are so popular on TV nowadays. They have been an unprecedented disaster and they are receiving lots and lots of calls for help after the hedgehogs and their young are disturbed by the bulldozers. She said that the mother can escape out of the way but it’s the poor baby hedgehogs which are most at risk and have to be rescued.
In 2006 the British Hedgehog Preservation Society ran a successful campaign and managed to get Macdonalds to change it Mcflurry’s lid which had found to be trapping these poor creatures.
The interest for garden makeover programs have been around for a number of years. Groundforce on the BBC has been one of the most popular ones making stars out of Charlie Dimmock and Tommy Walsh. Alan Titchmarsh was also a presenter on this series. My friend, who runs his own garden landscaping business, told me that the way the gardens were made over were superficial as it was not possible to make the changes to the gardens that quickly as the foundations for the garden were not giving sufficient settlement. I’m sure we all seen the episodes where the house owner was returning and the Groundforce team were quickly patting the plants into position.
Have you seen hedgehogs in your garden? And do you mind hedgehogs?
What other wildlife do you see in your garden?
