CELEBRITIES are urging gardeners to save hedgehogs during 'Wild About Gardens Week' as figures reveal the spiky animals have declined by 30 per cent in the last ten years.


Famous figures Twiggy, Ben Fogle, Bill Oddie and Chris Beardshaw are backing Wild About Gardens, a joint initiative by the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts – and this year also involving charity Hedgehog Street – which encourages people to support local biodiversity in their gardens. 


During 'Wild About Gardens Week', which runs from October 26 to November 1, people are encouraged to create hedgehog highways, grow a variety of plants and avoid the use of pesticides in their gardens.


The scheme comes after research by People’s Trust for Endangered Species revealed that hedgehogs have declined by 30 per cent in the last 10 years alone and there are now thought to be fewer than one million left in the UK.


Ben Fogle, patron of British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said: “Everybody loves hedgehogs! It’s a tragedy that they are disappearing so quickly particularly when it’s so easy to help them. We can all have a go at planting a native hedge, creating gaps in fences for them to pass through, leaving leaf or log piles and allowing parts of the garden to grow wild to give them a home.” 


Chris Beardshaw, RHS Ambassador for Community Gardening, said: “As gardeners, we often forget that that the garden is a refuge for our smaller visitors, many of whom have directed and influenced our appreciation of the outdoor environment."


Bill Oddie, The Wildlife Trusts’ vice president, said: “The hedgehog is the gardener’s friend. There’s no two ways about that. But not just that they are a delightful addition to your garden fauna –the birds, the animals, the insects - the hedgehogs, they belong there. We need them."


Twiggy, patron of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, said: “Seeing hedgehogs in our garden when I was a child was a magical experience. Now we all need to help these special mammals – and there’s so much that gardeners can do to reverse their decline.

"You can cut a small hedgehog hole at the bottom of your garden fence, leave wild nesting and hibernation areas, ditch the slug pellets and check that bonfire before striking the match.”


Avon Wildlife Trust is also getting involved and are appealing to public to report their hedgehog sightings in order to help with their future conservation work and monitor population trends. 


You can submit your hedgehog sightings online by visiting avonwildlifetrust.org.uk/lasthedgehog.


For more information about 'Wild About Gardens Week' visit wildaboutgardensweek.org.uk.