Supporting National Hedgehog Awareness Week 2016

National Hedgehog Awareness Week- 1st to 7th May 2016

It’s National Hedgehog Awareness Week; organised annually by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) to highlight the problems hedgehogs face and how you can help them. Shockingly hedgehogs have declined in Britain as fast as tigers worldwide and are now listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 endangered species.

Hedgehog Holes – our commitment

Having become aware of the plight of the British hedgehog earlier this year, Thakeham committed to making a difference. By putting hog holes in the fences in our new developments, we are enabling hedgehogs to roam freely in more built up environments. A hedgehog will often forage an area of over 2km a night in search of food and these holes enable hedgehogs to roam and forage – there is not enough food for a hedgehog in one garden, roaming is essential.

How are we doing this?

As part of our planning and specification requirements for future developments, we will ensure “hog holes” are part of the specification for garden and border fences. We will be working with our fencing contractors to see this happens. Working with the BHPS, we will ensure our new homeowners have information relating to the “hog hole” in their garden fence and how they can encourage and look after any visiting hedgehogs.

This year’s campaign focus is on strimmers

The focus for the BHPS for National Hedgehog Awareness Week 2016 is on strimmers and cutting machines as the BHPS attempt to reduce the number of terrible injuries and deaths caused by garden machinery. The areas we maintain in our gardens are often the natural habitat of the hedgehog, who is likely to be asleep during the day and unaware of the approaching danger! Please check areas carefully to avoid accidents.

Act now

The People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES) believes there are now fewer than a million hedgehogs remaining in the UK, down from two million in the mid-Nineties and 36 million in the Fifties.
The British hedgehog is an endangered species and if we do not act now, we face the reality that is our children and their children will grow up never seeing a wild hedgehog. Considering hedgehogs have been around for hundreds of years, this would be a real loss.
Thakeham are committed to doing what we can – putting hog holes in fences and communicating with our new homeowners, raising awareness, supporting the BHPS, PTES and the Hedgehog Street campaign.

What can you do?

There is plenty of information on Hedgehog Street’s website – it’s a great place to find out more, to be inspired to do something, to educate those around us to do something. If we all do something, we will make a difference.