Charity prickles over lack of good new homes for hedgehogs

Friday 13 November 2015

A Jersey charity says property developers could be doing more to help some local wildlife find the right place to live.

Dru Burdon who runs the Jersey Hedgehog Preservation Group says new housing developments are shutting out hungry hedgehogs.

She said: “The new estates we have over here are all walled in or fenced in and the fences often have concrete bases all totally useless for hedgehogs.

“They need to be able to get from one garden to another and the gardens have to be good for them – no plastic grass, not too much decking or concrete/paved areas etc, no raised beds – they need to get in there to find their natural food.”

She'd like to see something like Hedgehog Street - a national campaign that encourages people in the UK to make holes in their fences to join gardens up - set up here and for Islanders to make their gardens more hedgehog friendly.

Dru who’s been caring for the Island’s starving, sick, injured and baby hedgehogs for the last 23 years, has got her hands full at the moment, caring for over 100 hedgehogs.

She said: “November is always our busiest time. Hedgehogs need to weigh 600 grams to survive but we’ve had some juveniles come in weighing around 140 grams.

“We feed them up and treat any internal parasites like lung worm and gut worm and we’ll release them if the weather stays mild.”

If you see a hedgehog in need of a helping hand that’s out during the daytime or looks like it's stuggling at night, give Dru a call on 734340.