SWINDON animal lovers are being urged to ‘think hedgehog’ next week.
Hedgehog Awareness Week runs from May 3 to 9, with events are being organised across the country.
The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) oversees the annual week-long event, which aims to highlights the problems hedgehogs face and how you can helpthe animals.
Tips to help hedgehogs stay safe include ensuring access to gardens — a five inch-square gap — checking areas before strimming or mowing, moving piles of rubbish to a new site before burning it, ensuring netting is kept at a safe height, checking compost heaps before digging the fork in and ensuring there is an easy route out of ponds and pools.
BHPS chief executive Fay Vass said: “There is so much that can be done to help hedgehogs, and with hedgehog numbers in decline it is more important now than ever.
“The rate of hedgehog decline in the UK is comparable to the loss of the world’s tiger population.”
Information on how to help hedgehogs stay safe can be found on the society’s website at www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk
For free leaflets and membership details send an A5 stamped addressed envelope to BHPS, Awareness Week, Hedgehog House, Dhustone, Ludlow, SY8 3PL or visit the website.
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