Great Linford Parish Council (GLPC) is calling on residents to get down and dirty to help save its local population of hogs!
Milton Keynes Council is carrying out landscaping works to reduce bushes which will compromise the hibernating hedgehog population.
The council will be checking beneath the development areas in advance, but GLPC would like to help the council find the hogs and is calling on everyone to have a rummage too, to ensure the wellbeing of our endangered spiny mammals.
GLPC wants volunteers to turn detective by searching in the undergrowth to find hog nests and relocate them away from the danger of machinery. Any hedgehogs found will be moved to a safe location as close as possible to where are found.
“These hedgehogs are at risk, and we need to take action quickly,” said a spokesman for Great Linford Parish Council, “The alternative is that hedgehogs get caught up in the machinery and do not survive.
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“The hog population has been decimated in recent years. These magnificent little creatures need all the support we can provide while we still have the chance to help them,” they added.
Hedgehogs are one of our favourite mammals but their numbers are in worrying decline; intensification of agriculture, roadkill and predation are all having a negative effect.
Data from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society says that since 2000 numbers of hogs have declined by half in rural areas and by a third in urban spaces, and the species is now classified as vulnerable to extinction.
GLPC has consulted with The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Tiggywinkles Animal Rescue and has a Hedgehog Rescue Plan information leaflet for anyone wishing to step up as a hog hero and take part in the scheme.
Please email glpc@great-linford.gov.uk for your copy.
Pics courtesy of the British Hedgehog Preservation Society: www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk
