There has been a very steep decline in the number of hedgehogs in the UK in recent years. In fact a new report from the People’s Trust for Endangered Species and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, has revealed that numbers have dropped by up to 50% since the year 2000.

This decline is largely due to the destruction of their habitat, and an increase in popularity of monoculture agriculture. Hedgerows are being cut down to make room for bigger fields, which gives one of Britain's favorite animals no where to live.

What we are aiming to do is establish whether we still have a hedgehog population in the Leicestershire area, and if we do, find out where they are based. This money will go towards purchasing supplies to build 10 tracking tunnels which we will be able to use to survey grassland and wooded areas of up to 1km².

If ten baited tunnels are set in up to 1km ² for 5 consecutive nights and NO hedgehog footprints are detected, we can be 95% sure hedgehog are ABSENT from the area.

If this project receives enough support to be completely funded, we will be looking for volunteers from the surrounding areas and local communities to come with us to help out and learn how to set up the tunnels and record and analyze the data we collect.

To find out more about HomesForHedgehogs, and learn about our future plans, feel free to visit us at homesforhedgehogs.org