Press release from Cornwall Council:-

Hedgehogs are in trouble.  Numbers in the UK have fallen from 36 million in the 1950s to less than a million today.  It is feared that hedgehogs could become extinct in less than a decade.

Operation Hedgehog, launched in 2016, is a collaboration between the Cornwall Biodiversity Initiative* (CBI) and the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Local Nature Partnership (CIoS LNP).  Its aim is to address the decline in hedgehogs in Cornwall through education and by developing, facilitating and promoting a variety of hedgehog-friendly actions that individuals and organisations can adopt.

The threats to hedgehogs are numerous, but the main reasons for their decline include habitat fragmentation, lack of invertebrate food and lack of suitable nesting sites.

However, the good news is, small changes in our behaviour can make a big difference to hedgehogs!  Operation Hedgehog would like local people and businesses to help-a-hedgehog by adopting as many of our easy ‘top-tips’ as they can.  We have produced an A4 poster of our top tips for community notice boards and can provide further assistance if you wish for your local area to go ‘hedgehog friendly’! Simply follow the link above.

For further information, please contact operation.hedgehog@cornwall.gov.uk

Operation Hedgehog is a great example of how individuals, communities and organisations can all contribute to environmental growth – and shows how simple changes can deliver large gains for nature. Not only will these suggestions help our prickly friends, but they will benefit other wildlife – and people too!

Kind regards

Joyce Duffin
Cabinet Member
Cornwall Council