Sheffield College has won a national award for having a hedgehog friendly campus.
The college has been taking part in the ‘Hedgehog Friendly Campus Initiative,’ run by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.
Abby Bruce, an academic director, said how they went about ensuring the city based campus developed green spaces to protect local wildlife.
She said ‘It was really nice to celebrate, it was nice to see the award itself, to get everyone together to acknowledge what we’ve achieved and to make a plan to start working towards next, as gold is the next step!’
Miss Bruce said ‘The students have been doing rehabilitation projects with little hedgehogs that didn’t weigh enough so wouldn’t have been able to survive the hibernation period if they didn’t have a little bit of TLC,
‘They are a species nationally in decline and are threatened with extinction if we don’t do anything’ , Miss Bruce continued.
If you care about hedgehogs, here is what you can do to help.
How can I make my garden hedgehog friendly?
Jayne Griffiths, runs a small and relatively new hedgehog rescue set up the service to ‘help hogs in the Yorkshire area’.
Miss Griffiths explained, ‘I work very closely with the local vet to identify any issues that arise.’
The hog rescuer said, ‘you need to make space for hedgehogs and make space for nature. Make your gardens more messy!
‘Don’t do your gardening too early in the year and be especially careful with power tools and spades.’
Bruce said that if you are fortunate enough to have a pond, ‘ensure it is hedgehog friendly by putting in a ramp to ensure they can get in and out.’
What should I do if I see an injured hedgehog?
Tiggywinkles, which is a British animal welfare charity and wildlife hospital, said ‘Hedgehogs are nocturnal and only come out at night. Generally, any hedgehog out during the day is probably in trouble and will need to be picked up and taken to a wildlife rescue centre.
‘You can pick them up using gardening gloves and put them into a cardboard box, although they are good climbers, so you would need to ensure they cannot escape.’
Leave out the right food
People have often thought that you should be leaving out bread and milk for the hedgehogs, Miss Bruce told us ‘You can create hedgehog feeding stations and minimise the risk of them being used by other species that are less desirable to some people, like rats, by leaving out some water, and some dog or cat food. Which shouldn’t be fish flavoured.’
Tiggywinkles say that, ‘Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant so milk can make them very ill and should never be offered.’ The hogs eat invertebrates, so if you keep your garden full of bugs and insects the hedgehogs will thrive as it is their natural diet.