It's Hedgehog Awareness Week - Day 5

It's Hedgehog Awareness Week - Day 5

A lovely brick hedgehog house made at Holywells Park

It's Hedgehog Awareness Week! 7 days, 7 top tops. Day 5 - make a hedgehog house or feeding station!

Natural foraging and nesting sites are critical for a healthy hedgehog population. This can range from bramble patches and log piles through to strips of long grass, wildflowers and leaf stores.

To give an extra helping hand, hedgehog houses and feeding stations can also be a great addition to the garden. Why not have a go at making your own this #hedgehogweek? Hedgehog Street have some excellent tips for building a hedgehog house here. The placement of the house is important and providing bedding can increase the chances of residency. These are just a couple of findings from the big Hedgehog Housing Census run by People's Trust for Endangered Species and the University of Reading. Read more about the census here!

A feeding station is nice and easy to create too. The main thing to consider is how you are going to discourage cats and other animals from stealing the food. British Hedgehog Preservation Society have some guidelines to help here. Check out this video clip to see how sneaky cats can be when hedgehog food is involved!

A very persistent cat recorded in an Ipswich garden