TOP TIPS FOR HELPING HEDGEHOGS:

1. Make sure hedgehogs can access your garden. Many gardens are surrounded by walls or concrete gravel boards, making access to habitat in urban areas really difficult for hedgehogs. A 13x13cm hole in the bottom of the fence, or gap under the gate will do the trick! If you live in Ipswich, you can be in with a chance of winning a fab hedgehog hamper if you send a photo of your Hedgehog Highway! Details below.
2. Be a little less tidy. Hedgehogs love eating bugs, so having patches or strips of longer grass, keeping leaves on the ground and planting wildflower seeds will help create feeding habitat (and will encourage other lovely garden visitors like butterflies). Log piles and piles of old vegetation will help create nesting spots. Try to reduce or stop using chemicals to make your garden a wildlife haven.
3. Spread the word. Encourage your neighbours to help too – hedgehogs roam around 2km in a night and so need access to lots of gardens to survive. You can help spread the word by becoming an Ipswich Hedgehog Champion by heading to our website here.

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN A HEDGEHOG HAMPER!

To receive a Hedgehog Highway plaque and to be in with a chance of winning our hedgehog hamper, photos of your Ipswich Hedgehog Highway fence or wall holes should be sent to our email alongside the post code of the highway and a postal address. Each entry will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win a fab hedgehog hamper. We are very grateful to some lovely businesses and individuals for donating to this. The hamper includes a lovely butterfly mix tin of Butterfly Conservation recommended wildflower seeds created and donated by Seedball, a woven igloo hedgehog house and bag of tasty hedgehog food donated by Ipswich Homebase, a set of Hedgehog Street Hedgehog Highway plaques and a beautiful home-made hedgehog canvas bag made by one of our Ipswich Hedgehog Champions.

HEDGEHOG STREET ART

We are very pleased to be hosting street artist ATM between Tuesday 4th and Thursday 6th May to paint a beautiful hedgehog mural in the centre of town, opposite the Corn Exchange by the Swan Pub. If you’d like to see the painting in action, please do wander past to take a look! Examples of his previous work can be found here.

HOLYWELLS PARK NIGHT SAFARI

Come along to help us discover the elusive nocturnal wildlife of Holywells Park. We will be using thermal imaging and night vision technology to look for hedgehogs and other mammals, torches to look for amphibians, light traps to identify moths, and bat detectors to look out for flying mammals! The event is being led by our SWT Hedgehog Officer,  Suffolk Bat Group and Ipswich Park Rangers. There will be the opportunity to find out more about the work these groups do across Ipswich, wildlife recording, being an Ipswich Hedgehog Champion and how you can help us monitor hedgehogs in your own gardens across Ipswich. Weather dependent and limited spaces. Booking essential. Book here.

Hedgehogs are in trouble and need all the help they can get – Hedgehog Awareness Week is the perfect time to get started!