As Suffolk crawls out of winter and into spring and rural hedgehogs emerge from hibernation, their numbers are lower than ever – but all hope is not lost, as charities and the public band together to save them.

This year the already-endangered species is plunging further into peril as conservation organisations report worryingly low numbers.

The Natural History Museum reports that ‘up to three quarters of all Britain’s rural hedgehogs have been lost in the past 20 years’ with the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs Report 2022 adding that the ‘largest declines are seen in the eastern half of England’.

The dangers faced by hedgehogs are widespread, varying from lack of access to food and habitats to busy rural roads and getting caught up in garden strimmers and bonfires.

In the face of these jeopardies, everyone can play a part in helping hedgehogs. A few simple ways to help include creating wildlife corridors (making sure your garden fences have hedgehog-sized holes to allow the hogs to move between gardens to find food and shelter), leaving out hedgehog-safe food, and setting up garden hedgehog shelters to give them a place to nest and sleep.

The Suffolk Wildlife Trust offers advice and support, such as neighbourhood ‘drilling days’ where local communities can co-operate to create hedgehog-friendly routes through garden walls.

Online, they also offer tips on how to check bonfires for hedgehogs, and long grass for them before strimming. Their website has a feature where you can report hedgehog sightings to help build up a national record of the species’ population size.

The Trust says that if you see a hedgehog outside during winter or in daylight, or one that looks unwell, ‘it might need a helping hand.’

Dedicated volunteers also set out to save our hogs as members of local charities such as Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue. According to their website, Prickles ‘successfully treat around 300 hogs per year’ across three ‘hogspitals’. Their team aims to return hedgehogs ‘back into the wild whenever possible’ through providing veterinary care and over-wintering.

Prickles says that dehydration and hypothermia are common in rescued hedgehogs, and ‘many of the hedgehogs that are brought to us are malnourished. 95% of the hogs already have secondary infections with lungworm. Often they have other more serious underlying issues.’

Despite the bleak/discouraging realities of the present, hope remains for the future of hedgehogs if everybody plays their part.