Hedgehog Highways campaign is prickly business
Caerphilly County Borough Council’s Countryside team have launched a hedgehog highway campaign to protect the endangered creatures.
Research by People’s Trust for Endangered Species and British Hedgehog Preservation Society showed a quarter of the UK’s hedgehogs have been lost in just ten years.
There are a range of reasons for this: impermeable fencing is a big issue, along with loss of habitat for nesting and foraging, the effects of certain hazards and certain garden practices.
Hedgehogs travel around one mile every night through our parks and gardens in their quest to find food and other hogs to mate with. If you have an enclosed garden you might be getting in the way of their plans.
The Hedgehog Highways Project will help to connect gardens allowing hedgehogs more space to breed, find food and keep them off the roads.
If you’d like to help us build our hedgehog highway you can apply for one of our free ‘Hedgehog Highway’ packs.
Each pack includes a a hedgehog fence plaque to surround the hole in your fence for hedgehogs to access, a hedgehog survey tunnel, identification guide for footprints plus more.
You must be a resident of Caerphilly County Borough to for one of our hedgehog pack. Proof of address will be required and you will need to pick up your pack.
We have 250 packs to give away and if you email us pictures of hedgehogs or results of your survey, you will be entered into a draw to win one of 30 hedgehog nest boxes for your garden.
Apply for your free hedgehog pack by emailing countryside@caerphilly.gov.uk if you don’t have access to email then please call 01443 816853 and leave a message. To register we require your name, address and a contact number or email address.
Please note: Once you register for the ‘Hedgehog Highway’ Project you will receive an Application Form, which you will need to complete and return. Once we receive your completed Application Form, we will then send you your Hedgehog Pack.
The packs will be allocated on a first come first served per ward basis, in order to ensure a fair distribution across the County Borough. You must currently be a resident living within Caerphilly County Borough. Only one pack is permitted per household.
Closing date for registering is 17 August 2021.