Hedgehogs, Homes & Highways
Jenny opens our hearts and our gardens to this wonderful prikley creature
Introducing the Ullapool Hedgehog Friendly Village Project (extending to Lochbroom and Coigach areas)
February 2nd was World Hedgehog Day and it certainly seems that hedgehogs are the animal of the autumn and winter this year with lots happening concerning them in our local area, not least some new arrivals from the east coast!
I have been thinking for a few years (ever since our team leader High Life Highland Senior Ranger, Andy Summers briefed me about the loss of hedgehogs in the Assynt area, just north of Ullapool) that we should celebrate and look after our Ullapool hedgehogs more. At that time, I was seeing quite a few in and around Ullapool.
Local Tales and National Campaigns
Every time I mention these small mammals to someone in the village, they seem to have a story about an encounter with one, or someone they know having had a hedgehog visit. One local even told me of hedgehogs keeping them awake at night! Many of these encounters are in the middle part of Ullapool village. I’ve met some in Morefield (North of Ullapool) too.
A likely factor in this is due to Beatrice and her amazing dedication to animals and releasing them locally from the Highland Wildlife Hospital. A heat map might just show a hedgehog boom spreading out from Argyll Street, where the hospital is located!
Nationally - hedgehogs are in massive decline and on the red list for mammals, classed as ‘vulnerable to extinction’. Imagine? No more hedgehogs! In 2022 an annual report released by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species, stated that the average decline of hedgehogs over the last twenty years is 8.3% - per year. This has prompted a current campaign “Hedgehog Street” to protect them in law.
All this means we should celebrate them where they find refuge, look after them and encourage them.
What can you do?
Report your Sightings, please let conservation agencies know where you are seeing hedgehogs. Sightings and records help us find out what is happening with numbers locally and nationally. If you think you have a visiting hedgehog but don’t see them, you can put a tunnel with non-toxic ink mixed with oil to capture any footprints. Camera traps might also tell you if they are visiting your garden at night.
Logging records can be done in several ways; one way is through the Mammal Society’s Mammal Tracker app “Mammal Mapper” or the mammal society website, with a grid reference or what 3 words or address- if you are happy to share that.
The other way to do this is in with a report to your local ranger Find a Countryside Ranger - High Life Highland Rangers. In Ullapool library I have a hedgehog map of Ullapool village where you can put a dot on for your hedgehog sighting. Anything recent would be useful.
Help with Habitat – like all wildlife, neat gardens are not ideal for hedgehogs. You can have a messy corner with piles of sticks and gathered leaves. It gives them somewhere to hide during the night or they might even hibernate there in winter. Hedgehog houses – These are the next best thing to having a good habitat for hedgehogs. They provide a safe and dry place for them to be with an opening of suitable size for them. At Ullapool Nature club we have been making them thanks to a donation of wooden wine boxes from Highland Liquor Company and I even had a neighbour drop a homemade one off on my doorstep. You can find designs online (see the RSPB video below) . It is best not to use treated wood though. At nature club we have been making signs for the boxes to stop them being disturbed. Some are very clear about not disturbing any sleeping hogs.
Check your bonfire piles before lighting– bonfire piles are such a welcoming place for a hedgehog but not so good if they are lit! Check them first if you are having a bonfire.
Hedgehog highways or Spikeways (as our High Life Highland Ullapool Library Nature Club named them) – Hedgehogs can travel up to a mile in any night so one garden isn’t enough. In Highland now, any new housing development from this year should incorporate hedgehog holes between fences. Maybe your fence already has space underneath or has an unplanned hole for hedgehogs to move between gardens but if your garden is like a fortress, you might want to consider making it possible for hedgehogs to pass through to your neighbours.
At the High Life Highland Rangers’ Nature club in the Library we have been making some templates you can use to cut a hedgehog size hole in your fence (13 x 13cm). We may have these ready to hand out soon (a donation for Nature Club funds always welcome) . Please get in touch if you would like one.
Pond ramps – hedgehogs can’t get out of smooth-sided ponds or ditches. If you have a watery place in your garden, you can make some exit ways for hedgehogs, so they don’t drown. In relation to this, if you know you have hedgehogs in yout area check cattle grids for hedgehogs that might have fallen in and can’t get out!
Avoid insecticides and pesticides in your garden because the beasties that those chemicals target can badly affect the hedgehogs who eat them. That also includes slug pellets. These poisons do make their way into the food chain, and we are usually at the end of that too, so best avoided if possible.
Don’t give them milk or bread. These are not good for them. It is probably best not to feed them all the time or with the same food (unless you have instructions for a released animal). You can give them a bit occasionally in the harder months – something like cat or dog food made with meat is best.
Ullapool - A Hedgehog Hub
New hogs have been arriving in the village! The Ullapool Sea Savers have been working with Jane Wilson from the Highland Wildlife Rescue in Brora who has been taking in hedgehogs for wild release and is looking for suitable west coast gardens so we may have a few more about soon. If you have a suitable garden, it might be the place for a hedgehog to make a new home.
Please get in touch with your hedgehog sightings, if you think you have a suitable garden or wish for a hedgehog highway (‘spikeway’) tunnel. I would also love to hear from anyone who would like to make us some more boxes or box kits or cut out some spikeways. Ullapool seems to be the perfect candidate for a hedgehog friendly village.
Jenny Grant is the dedicated High Life Highland Countryside Ranger for Wester Ross, operating out of Ullapool Library. With a profound commitment to community engagement, Jenny concentrates her efforts on building connnection between the community and their natural environment. Her work is driven by an unwavering passion for the natural world, encompassing a broad spectrum of interests from local flora and fauna to broader ecological systems. Jenny views learning about the Highland's unique ecology as a lifelong journey, one that she enthusiastically shares with others. Her role not only involves conservation efforts but also educating and inspiring the public about the importance of preserving the natural beauty and biodiversity of the Highlands.
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