During Hedgehog Awareness week we were celebrating the amazing people that are helping raise awareness for hedgehogs, promote action, and better understand hedgehogs across Ipswich!

These are just some of the individuals and groups doing brilliant stuff for hedgehogs. Included here are also lots of links for you to find out more about getting involved, whether it is yourself as an individual, a family, a school, community group or a business, everyone can do their bit to help hedgehogs.

Hedgehog Champions!

Here are Emma and Daisy, two of our Hedgehog Champions working to enthuse their neighbours and peers to have hedgehog-friendly gardens.  Emma is a trustee and volunteer for Poppy’s Crêche hedgehog rescue, shares stories and videos of hedgehogs across social media regularly and is spreading the word for hedgehog-friendly gardening to her neighbours, friends and colleagues. Daisy is a wildlife ambassador at Sidegate Primary School, runs hedgehog stalls and has made some brilliant hedgehog creations to help raise awareness and funds, including key rings, window stickers and a leaflet that was distributed to all houses within her school catchment as part of a school competition. Daisy recently made this awesome videoto help people make hedgehog feeding stations in their gardens.

Hedgehog Champions aim to make their whole street hedgehog friendly, with linked gardens and nesting and feeding habitat through the Hedgehog Street approach. There are lots of ways to promote action and champion hedgehogs on your street, from chatting to neighbours, distributing our leaflets, writing letters, setting up community facebook pages, running a neighbourhood hedgehog survey or organising street events! We are here to help and have champion packs to get you started. For more information and to register to become a champion in Ipswich, head to our website here.

Hedgehog volunteers!

Ipswich would definitely not be as hedgehog friendly without the very generous help of our interns and volunteers. From helping us run community events, hedgehog surveys, visit gardens or run research projects, our dedicated hedgehog volunteers have contributed over 600 hours of their time to the project in the past year and a half. Amazing! One of our hedgehog interns Chloe (left photo) is pictured below in our study area after a day of installing cameras in gardens. Steph (right photo) is one of our night torchlight volunteers and has walked many  miles in the dark in search of hedgehogs. On the night this photo was taken we found two lovely hedgehogs, both in good health! If you would like to volunteer with our hedgehog project then please head to our website here, to find out more.

Community Groups

Community groups across Ipswich have been very keen to learn more about hedgehogs and how to help them. “We love hedgehogs!” shouts the SWT Ipswich Local Group! It is through the action of whole communities creating Hedgehog Highways and garden habitat that we will be able to improve large areas for hedgehog populations. Ipswich is lucky to have lots of organisations working towards similar goals for wildlife (See Wild Ipswich). Pictured below are Greenways & Ipswich Wildlife Group next to some of their hedgehog homes made as part of their wildlife homes events across town. Participants help make their own home, and each hedgehog house goes home with a fact sheet to help spread the word!

Schools

Schools across town have been learning about hedgehogs and how to help them in their school grounds and in their own gardens, and some have been surveying their school grounds for signs of hedgehog. Ipswich School have been ensuring their grounds are hedgehog friendly with the creation of lots of natural and home-made hedgehog nest sites, including this very stylish hedgehog house at The Lodge Day Nursery.

Ipswich Borough Council 

Ipswich Borough Council have taken the pledge to check before they strim – with their machinery now displaying warning stickers from British Hedgehog Preservation Society. Park team members have recently attended a hedgehog ecology workshop to think about how their green spaces are managed for wildlife and to discuss what else could be done!

Ipswich Football Club

Ipswich Town football club are helping spread awareness with machinery stickers too, and are promoting this to all of their community supporters via their social media accounts. Hopefully this will help people to remember to check for hedgehogs before cutting those areas of long grass that are perfect for nesting. You can request hedgehog machinery stickers from British Hedgehog Preservation Society, here.

Hedgehog Rescue

Here are Paula, Anne and Lis photographed at Suffolk Prickles Hedgehog Rescue hogspital! Hedgehog rescuers work tirelessly to help sick and injured hogs and these three lovely ladies are doing an amazing job. If you’d like to donate, or find out more about Suffolk Prickles or other local rescues like Poppys creche, click the links to head to their websites.

These are just some of the groups and individuals that are helping hedgehogs across Ipswich, and what a great job they are dong. Keep up the good work folks!