How to Celebrate National Hedgehog Day
Celebrate National Hedgehog Day in a variety of ways, including some of these:
Help Protect Hedgehogs
Help protect these prickly yet adorable creatures. In some parts of the world, particularly Europe, hedgehog numbers are sadly declining – this appears to be due to a variety of complex factors such as habitat loss through urbanization and agriculture, food scarcity due to pesticide use, and disease caused by parasites.
Create a Hedgehog Habitat
If you’re lucky enough to have a garden – prime hedgehog habitat – then why not make it hedgehog safe?
Always check for spiny visitors before mowing your lawn and allow an escape route from your pond or water feature. Check bonfires before lighting them as these are another popular hiding place for hedgehogs and take care with netting as they can easily get tangled!
If you come across a hedgehog in need of help, keep it warm and offer it cat or dog food along with freshwater – this is much better than giving it milk and bread. You can then either take it to a local rescue center or, if it’s perked up, release it back into the wild.
Make Your Garden Hedgehog Friendly
And there are plenty of things you can do to go the extra mile and make your garden, even more, hedgehog friendly.
Each individual will have its own home range of up to 30 hectares, so hedgehog highways are especially important in urban areas – creating gaps through or tunnels under fences between your garden and your neighbors’ will ensure that hedgehogs can roam far and wide for food.
Growing a wide range of plants will increase the insect population in your garden, offering up a delicious feast for any passing hedgehog.
And you can even encourage them to settle in your garden, either by piling up some logs and leaves for a cozy nest or by building a small hedgehog home – you’ll find plenty of great instructions for these online!
Bake a Hedgehog Cake
Hedgehog cakes are very fun to bake, especially with children, and if you’re really serious about protecting the hedgehog you could even sell your cakes to fundraise for a hedgehog preservation charity!
You can also sign up for a citizen science project to help monitor numbers and some organizations and charities offer the chance to adopt a hedgehog for yourself or a loved one.
However you celebrate, it’s sure to be a spine-tacular day!