Species of the Month June 2020

Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus

 

The hedgehog is an iconic garden species in Britain which is sadly on the decline. Unmistakable, this prickly mammal is a great friend to gardeners thanks to its diet of slugs and other insects. You can encourage hedgehogs into your garden by creating hedgehog highway (i.e. fence gaps to allow free movement), setting up a hedgehog house, providing a clean water source and by putting out supplementary food. This is an excellent time of year to see hedgehogs, as they are active all summer. As they are a nocturnal species, you might like to invest in a trail cam, so you can capture images of them after dark.

If you aren't lucky enough to have hedgehogs in your garden, we are also interested in other records including roadkill - unfortunately one of the more common types of hedgehog sighting. You can see the Welsh distribution of Hedgehog on Aderyn.

If you spot a Hedgehog during June (or at any other time of year), please send us the record, ideally via SEWBReCORD or the LERC Wales App. Instructions on how to submit records are available here.