Petition gathers pace to save hedgehogs from extinction

A wildlife charity seeking to protect native hedeghog populations in decline in the UK is calling for support to afford their nests legal protection.

Hedgehogs are already protected by law, but a petition calling for measures to protect their nesting sites too has received 92,000 signatures to date.

The threshold for a parliamentary debate is 100,000 signatures minimum.

Secret World Wildlife Rescue in Somerset said building housing estates was threatening hedgehog habitats.

Pauline Kidner from the charity said: "When you see the large amounts of housing estates that are going up and all these fences built with cement bases, it means that these animals, wherever they are, lose their foraging [space] and they're unable to move from one garden to the next."

She said foraging space and the ability to move about with freedom was "so important" for hedgehogs to be able to survive.

Hedeghog numbers have fallen by up to 50% in rural areas since 2000, according to one report, and they are registered as vulnerable to extinction on the Red List for Britain's mammals.

Hedgehogs are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, preventing them from being killed using prohibited methods such as snares or traps.

Schedule 5 of the the act offers additional protection for the conservation of animal habitats.

The Somerset charity is backing a petition by The British Hedgehog Preservation Society, to add them to schedule 5 of the act.

The society's spokesman Fay Vass said: "Something needs to be done."

"All the other animals on the vulnerable to extinction list are subject to schedule 5 so hedgehogs just need to catch up with that."

In January, MP Chris Grayling tabled an amendment to the Environment Bill proposing that hedgehogs be added to schedule 5, a move which has received cross-party backing so far from 15 MPs.

If approved, it would place a legal obligation on developers to search for the animals and take action to reduce the risk to their habitat from building.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: "Hedgehogs are one of our most treasured animals and play an important role in the country's heritage and natural environment, and we are working hard to reverse the decline of our iconic British species."

It said it planned to create or restore 500,000 hectares of wildlife-rich habitat and Natural England was also working to support more than 100 species in its Back from the Brink conservation programme by the end of 2021.